HOW TO REDUCE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS

Pediatrician Philip J. Landrigan said that there are ways people can cut down on their families’ exposure to environmental contaminants.

Landrigan said he advises families to opt for organic foods whenever possible because “studies have shown that people who eat a mainly organic diet have far fewer toxic chemicals in their body than people who eat a so-called conventional diet.”

He also suggests limiting or eliminating the use of pesticides around the house.

“If you’ve got bugs around the apartment or the house, deal with them the oldfashioned way, ”he said,“which is keeping things clean, picking up food residue; don’t leave the bugs any free food and water.”

Sherri A. Mason, a microplastics expert and director of sustainability at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania, said breastfeeding parents who are concerned about their babies’ microplastics exposure in particular should consider providing breast milk directly from the breast and not from a bottle.

Pumping milk, freezing it in plastic, then heating it up increases the shedding of microplastic particles. Likewise, heating plastic in a microwave causes“the thousands of chemicals that are used in the plastic to move,”which means they will migrate out of the plastic and into the liquid or food, Mason said.

She also said nursing mothers may want to avoid plastic water bottles themselves; her 2018 research showed that “bottles shed particles of plastic into the water, making the plastic content in the bottled liquid hundreds of times greater than simple tap water.” It’s one way they can potentially reduce the plastics in their body and their breast milk.