TY - JOUR
T1 - Human milk research for answering questions about human health
AU - Wang, Richard Y.
AU - Bates, Michael N.
AU - Goldstein, Daniel A.
AU - Haynes, Suzanne G.
AU - Hench, Karen D.
AU - Lawrence, Ruth A.
AU - Paul, Ian
AU - Qian, Zhengmin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the following organizations for generously providing support for the workshop: the American Chemistry Council; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C13/CCU323635-01); the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HHSH240200415021P); Health Canada (H405-03-ExSD079/4500078209); 3M; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine; the Research Foundation for Health and Environmental Effects; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Children’s Health (CH-83213101-0).
PY - 2005/10/22
Y1 - 2005/10/22
N2 - Concerns regarding human milk in our society are diverse, ranging from the presence of environmental chemicals to the health of breastfed infants and the economic value of breastfeeding to society. The panel convened for the Technical Workshop on Human Milk Surveillance and Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals in the United States, held at the Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, on 24-26 September 2004, considered how human milk research may contribute to environmental health initiatives to benefit society. The panel concluded that infant, maternal, and community health can benefit from studies using human milk biomonitoring. Unlike other biological specimens, human milk provides information regarding exposure of the mother and breastfed infant to environmental chemicals. Some of the health topics relevant to this field of research include disorders of growth and development in infants, cancer origins in women, and characterization of the trend of exposure to environmental chemicals in the community. The research focus will determine the design of the study and the need for the collection of alternative biological specimens and the long-term storage of these specimens. In order to strengthen the ability to interpret study results, it is important to identify reference ranges for the chemicals measured and to control for populations with high environmental chemical exposure, because the amount of data on environmental chemical levels in human milk that is available for comparison is extremely limited. In addition, it will be necessary to validate models used to assess infant exposure from breastfeeding because of the variable nature of current models. Information on differences between individual and population risk estimates for toxicity needs to be effectively communicated to the participant. Human milk research designed to answer questions regarding health will require additional resources to meet these objectives. Copyright
AB - Concerns regarding human milk in our society are diverse, ranging from the presence of environmental chemicals to the health of breastfed infants and the economic value of breastfeeding to society. The panel convened for the Technical Workshop on Human Milk Surveillance and Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals in the United States, held at the Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, on 24-26 September 2004, considered how human milk research may contribute to environmental health initiatives to benefit society. The panel concluded that infant, maternal, and community health can benefit from studies using human milk biomonitoring. Unlike other biological specimens, human milk provides information regarding exposure of the mother and breastfed infant to environmental chemicals. Some of the health topics relevant to this field of research include disorders of growth and development in infants, cancer origins in women, and characterization of the trend of exposure to environmental chemicals in the community. The research focus will determine the design of the study and the need for the collection of alternative biological specimens and the long-term storage of these specimens. In order to strengthen the ability to interpret study results, it is important to identify reference ranges for the chemicals measured and to control for populations with high environmental chemical exposure, because the amount of data on environmental chemical levels in human milk that is available for comparison is extremely limited. In addition, it will be necessary to validate models used to assess infant exposure from breastfeeding because of the variable nature of current models. Information on differences between individual and population risk estimates for toxicity needs to be effectively communicated to the participant. Human milk research designed to answer questions regarding health will require additional resources to meet these objectives. Copyright
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U2 - 10.1080/15287390500226706
DO - 10.1080/15287390500226706
M3 - Article
C2 - 16176918
AN - SCOPUS:26944433133
SN - 1528-7394
VL - 68
SP - 1771
EP - 1801
JO - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A
JF - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A
IS - 20
ER -
