Report on Global Monitoring Project Pesticide Research Laboratory ...

Follow-up studies performed in children of women accidentally exposed to high levels of PCBs
and related compounds (Japanese and Taiwanese rice oil incidents) have demonstrated a variety
of health effects, e.g., lower birth weight, hyper pigmentation, conjunctivitis, nail changes, and
developmental delay; these are similar to toxic effects reported in animal studies (5, 6).
Newborns of mothers who reported consumption of PCB-contaminated fish from Lake Michigan
showed lower birth weight (7) and lower IQ scores at school-age (8).
In Jamaica there is widespread application of PCB and hence the risk or health hazards may be
just as common. For example, in Jamaica, areas of transformer oil storage or transformer
explosion, PCBs, has been detected in soil samples at concentrations of 4.8 mg/kg and 8.7mg/kg
respectively (9). However the health effects of exposure to PCBs and related compounds have
not been explored. More importantly the cumulative effects of POPs on infants from breast milk
from exposed mothers have not been investigated. The WHO has recently recommended
exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and
health (WHO) (10). Infants who are exclusively breastfed for six months, experience less
morbidity from pneumonia and gastrointestinal morbidity than those who are partially breastfed
or not breastfed (11), and no long term deficits have been demonstrated in growth among infants
from either developing or developed countries who are exclusively breastfed for six months or
longer (12).Additionally breastfeeding is cheaper, is associated with significantly higher mental
development scores than formula-fed infants . However the effect of sustained consumption of
breast milk contaminated with environmental toxins such as POP‟s on infants growth and mental
development is unclear.
More importantly the cumulative levels of POPs in human breast milk have not been
investigated. It is hence necessary, that we seek to measure the levels of the POPs that maybe
present in breast milk, thus providing information for policy makers to embark on crucial plan of
actions to minimize exposure and/or emissions of these toxins.