Argumentative Essay On Breast Is Best

Breast is Still Best: Toxic Milk vs. National Breastfeeding Rhetoric By 1985, Inuit breastfeeding rates were on the rise, as were the rates throughout Canada. The marketing of breast milk seemed to have worked in reclaiming breastfeeding as the ideal practice of infant feeding. In 1983, 88.9 percent of Inuit infants that remained with their mothers were breastfed. This number was projected to rise with the ending of formula sample distribution throughout Canada and the guidelines set by the WHO and UNICEF. The rhetoric of “breast is best” had gained its authority within Canadian society, affirmed by the responses towards contaminated breast milk. In 1985, following the increase in breastfeeding rates among Inuit populations, the federal Health Department announced that Inuit populations were to be tested for …show more content…
Dr. David Kinloch and Dr. H.V. Kuhnwin, in “Assessment of PCBs in Arctic foods and diets: A pilot study in Broughton Island, Northwest Territories” (1986), confirmed that the Inuit diet in Broughton Island, now Qikiqtarjuaq, was contaminated with PCBs. According to Kinloch, the health of Canada’s 22,000 Inuit and their lifestyles were threatened because “virtually every level of the food chain is of great concern” for contamination. In 1989, Eric Dewailly et al. announced the high levels of PCBs in Inuit breast milk in Northern Quebec. Inuit women had a PCB level concentration of approximately five times of that of southern Quebec Caucasian women, also tested in this study.According to both studies, Inuit peoples’ high consumption of marine resources is considered the main route of toxic exposure. Yet, changes and recommendations were not communicated to Inuit populations at this time. Specifically, breastfeeding mothers, whose milk was contained, were not provided with information on the risks of continued breastfeeding on their