Re: Infant Radionuclide Intake from Breast Feeding

[schoenho@via.at]

At 19:54 28.08.1996 -0500, you wrote:
>i know this sounds bizzare but one of our workers is breast feeding her 
>3 month old and asked what the potential intake would be for her infant 
>through breastfeeding. I remember a draft NRC publication on fetal 
>doses through placenta transfer-is there anything comparable to that 
>regarding breastfeeding ?
>
>Not kidding !
>
>Pete C.
>===================================================================

Pete,

Your question is not at all bizarre. During the early months after the
Chernobyl accident this question was posed very often to me by mothers.
Shortly after the accident intake of I-131 by inhalation and ingestion
(milk) was easy to measure and this is true for Cs-137 in the later phase.
We analysed mothers milk, in which we easily could measure Cs-137. We
recommended anyway that mothers should not stop breastfeeding, because it
has so much advantage that a small possible dose is acceptable.

Of course the intake of I-131 after the Chernobyl accident in my country was
very small compared to the activities used in radiotherapy.

In case you are interested in details, please contact me. I can try to find
this old material in my files. 

Best regards,  Franz Schoenhofer
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 WIEN
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
Tel.:		+43-664-3380333
e-mail:		schoenho@via.at