Letter: Burn away the dioxin threat

Sir: As a pregnant woman it is hard to express the confusion and despondency I face knowing that my diligent efforts to breast-feed my newborn baby will deliver to him alarming levels of dioxins and PCBs, both known carcinogens and hormone disrupters.

Reading Dr Elliot's letter (20 May) caused me to wonder what if anything I could do in the three months prior to birth to reduce the dioxin level that I store in my body fat. Reduce my meat intake? Dairy intake? Move as far away from waste incineration sites as possible?

Or maybe I should ignore the advice of health professionals and switch to formula milk. Formula milk, however, we are told, contains phthalates, more hormone-disrupting chemicals, delivered to our babies courtesy of the plastics industry.

Clearly, there is nothing I can now do to protect my baby from this contamination. I will indeed breast-feed this baby, however uneasily. But please, let sense prevail and have this new government take action to ban PVC production and curb the use of incinerators to dispose of waste.

LAUREN BROMLEY HODGE

London W14