New Warning About Excessive "Agent Orange" Toxin in Baby Formula and Breast Milk

How sad! Our biggest source of exposure to dioxin is through meat, dairy products and seafood. Dr. Mercola recommends cutting out virtually all seafood unless you can verify that is very low in contaminants! Yikes! What have we done to our earth!! For one thing, don't use chemical cleaners in your house, especially bleach. I will blog on this soon.

New Warning About Excessive “Agent Orange” Toxin in Baby Formula and Breast Milk…

The Environmental Protection Agency has held public hearings to review a proposed safe exposure limit for dioxin, a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor.

Dioxin is nearly impossible to avoid, as women exposed to it pass it on to fetuses in the womb, and both breast milk and formula have been shown to contain it.

Research done has shown that a nursing infant ingests an amount 77 times higher than what the EPA has proposed as safe exposure. Adults are exposed to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA suggests is safe.

According to Inhabitots:

"Because dioxin is such a common pollutant -- it's a waste product of incineration, smelting, chlorine bleaching and pesticides manufacturing -- its health effects are well documented ...

Studies have shown that ongoing low-level exposure can result in heart disease, diabetes, cancer, endometriosis, early menopause and reduced testosterone and thyroid hormones."

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Dioxin, which was a toxic component of the Agent Orange used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War, is easily one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man.

In the United States, chlorinated dioxins form as a byproduct of industry, particularly smelting, chlorine paper bleaching and pesticide manufacturing, as well as through waste incineration. The chemical is pretty much everywhere in the environment, and because it breaks down very slowly it easily accumulates in the food chain, where it’s especially prominent in animal fat.

Meat, dairy products, fish and shellfish are all common routes of exposure for adults, and even unborn babies are exposed to the chemical while still in the womb. Dioxin also exists in breast milk and formula, which means infants are not only born with dioxin in their bodies, but continue to receive a steady supply of it after birth.

Infants, Adults Ingesting Far More Dioxin than Safe

Ingesting any dioxin at all is far from “safe,” but the amounts infants are being exposed to daily is even higher than the level the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set for endocrine and immune system safety -- 77 times higher at that, according to Environmental Working Group (EWG) research.

Since food is currently the primary route of exposure to dioxin for most, and children eat more food, pound-per-pound, compared to adults, experts say children aged 1-10 get the highest dietary exposures.

Further, the general public is exposed to up to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA says is safe on a daily basis, according to EWG. In an EWG letter to the EPA Science Advisory Board, it was even noted that “a 130-pound adult who eats a cheeseburger and drinks a glass of milk can consume a third of EPA’s proposed safe daily dose of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds… ”

EPA safety limits for dioxin, meanwhile, have been in the works for nearly 30 years but have been pushed back time and time again due to chemical and defense industry pressure. It’s been so long since the EPA’s initial safety limit proposal that EWG believes the levels need to be tightened even more, given the increasing evidence that dioxin is more dangerous than scientists initially thought.

In July, the EPA finally met to discuss issues related to dioxin toxicity, and public comments on the EPA’s proposal are being accepted until September 20.

Read more here.