Toxins in mothers' milk in Payatas

Milk samples from 12 nursing mothers in the former dump site in Payatas, suburban Quezon City contain dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls, according to a study by a Japanese group.

"The nursing mothers got these substances from the fumes of burned solid wastes in Payatas," said Von Hernandez, Green-peace International representative.

The findings should not discourage mother's to breastfeed their newborn babies, said Hernandez during a discussion on Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Treaty at Rembrant hotel in suburban Quezon City.

"We need to address the source of the pollutants by stopping the burning of dump sites and the exposure of residents to harmful substances brought by wastes," Hernandez said.

The Stockholm Convention on POPs signed by more than a hundred countries last year in Geneva, Switzerland seeks to eliminate totally the POPs present in pesticides, industrial chemicals and breast milk.

The Philippine government, one of the more than 100 countries that are signatories to the Stockholm convention should ratify the treaty through Senate by September 1, 2002. Only eight countries have ratified it.

The convention needs the ratification of 50 countries before it becomes legally operational. Three hundred environmental groups world-wide called on all governments to ratify the Stockholm treaty.