Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in breast milk and infant formula: A global issue
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are transferred from mother to infants through breastfeeding, a time when children may be particularly vulnerable to PFAS-mediated adverse health effects. Infants can also be exposed to PFAS from infant formula consumption. Our recent literature-based scoping of breast milk levels reported that four PFAS often exceeded the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) children's drinking water screening levels in both the general population and highly impacted communities in the U.S. and Canada. This work presents a comparison of global breast milk and infant formula PFAS measurements with the only reported health-based drinking water screening values specific to children. METHODS: We focused on four PFAS for which ATSDR has developed children's drinking water screening values: PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), PFHxS (perfluorohexanesulfonic acid), and PFNA (perfluorononanoic acid). Published literature on PFAS levels in breast milk and infant formula were identified via PubMed searches. Data were compared to children's drinking water screening values. DISCUSSION: Breast milk concentrations of PFOA and PFOS often exceed children's drinking water screening values, regardless of geographic location. The limited information on infant formula suggests its use does not necessarily result in lower PFAS exposures, especially for formulas reconstituted with drinking water containing PFAS. Unfortunately, individuals generally cannot know whether their infant's exposures exceed children's drinking water screening values. Thus, it is essential that pregnant and lactating women and others, especially those having lived in PFAS-contaminated communities, have data required to make informed decisions on infant nutrition. An international monitoring effort and access to affordable testing are needed for breast milk, drinking water and infant formula to fully understand infant PFAS exposures. Currently, our understanding of demonstrable methods for reducing exposures to emerging PFAS is limited, making this research and the communications surrounding it even more important.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.007 | 0.015 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".