Recent research indicates a fact that the proportions are still unknown but that seems to me, even if it is locally, enormously serious. In the US it has been detected in the milk for babies a toxic product called perchlorate, which is an ingredient in rocket fuel.
This toxic interferes with thyroid functions, and therefore, its effect can be very serious. A problem in the thyroid can affect the development of the fetus and its brain functions and also regulates our metabolism.
Investigating precisely the possible causes of thyroid problems made this finding. In their analysis they found baby milk with rates that are considered too high even for adults. The serious thing is that the number of boats analyzed was small and from a single city, so the extent of the contamination has not been determined.
Although so far no health problem has been reported directly derived from the consumption of milk contaminated with perchlorate, the case has caused considerable alert. It is not known how many babies may be affected or if the contamination will have proven effects on their immediate health.
Traces of the substance in drinking water from at least 35 states were found last year and work is being done on a bill that limits the amount of perchlorate in the water. In this case the direct source of milk contamination is unknown.
We live in a polluted world, sometimes without control and without knowledge about the consequences of these toxins and their cross effects among them. Nothing is safe, but when we talk about babies the controls should be so exhaustive and continuous that things like these should never happen.
Actually the breast milk substitutes they meet sanitary requirements that I consider too mild, both in terms of tests on their long-term effect and in the possible contamination that, although it is very late in the afternoon, occurs.
In breast milk, harmful products are usually found that pass through the mother's body, although until now it has been considered that the levels found do not reduce the protective effect of live human milk.
However, in the case of babies who are fed with formula the case is more serious, the toxic they pass directly to them, they can have uncertain origins and these babies lack the protective elements that breastfeeding provides.
Controls in breast milk substitutes should be more stringent and more similar to those required for medications than those made in adult food products. It must be said that babies who take formula do not take another food for many months and are the most important for their future health, so no precaution is small.
That this product from the rocket fuel In foods that are given to infants it is something that should not happen. And it makes me wonder what other unpleasant surprises await us?
