RESUMEN
PIP: In the article by Rogan et al. on pollutants in breast milk, the statement that "there are no obvious...dietary predictors" of chemical pollutants in human milk is challenged by recent unpublished data on vegetarian women. We studied 12 woman who were all members of a religious community that eliminates all animal products from the diet and uses soybeans and grains for proteins. Samples of breast milk were gathered in August 1979 and were analyzed for 17 chemical substances. The lipid levels in the vegetarian sample were similar to levels reported in the literature (mean, 4.23%, range, 1.23-7.4%). For the 7 contaminants reported for U. S. women by Rogan et al. and Savage, we compared the concentrations in the vegetarian women. For every contaminant except polychlorinated biphenyls, in which there were no strong differences between groups, there was no overlap in the range of scores; the highest vegetarian value was lower than the lowest value obtained in the U. S. sample. For beta-benzene hexachloride, dieldrin, and p,p'chlonophenothane, the 1 vegetarian subject who had more than trace amounts was the only subject who was nursing her 1st baby and had observed the vegetarian diet for less than a hear. For the other 3 substances, p,p'1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis ethylene, heptachlor epoxide, and oxychlordane, the mean vegetarian levels were only 1-2% as high as the average levels in the U. S. As Rogan et al. stated, "For certain fat-soluble chemicals, nursing infants can be regarded as living at the top of the food chain and are exposed to much more than background levels." Nursing infants of vegetarian women whose diets are low on the food chain are exposed to less chemical pollution. These preliminary results indicate that diet may indeed be a major predictor of chemical pollutants in the body. Further research is underway on a larger vegetarian sample from the same population.^ieng