Jewelry cleaner removes mercury from breast milk
A jeweler says a mercury-containing cleaning product is the best way to remove mercury from a baby’s breast milk, saying it removes the pollutant and is less likely to harm a child’s brain.
The company, Baskets, says the product removes mercury through a process known as a “bioactive” cleaning.
The chemical’s chemical name is chloroquine, but its active ingredient is chlorothalonil, the name of a popular chemical disinfectant.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean the cleaning product contains chloroquium chloride.
“This is a cleaner for babies’ breast milk that does not contain chloroquide, but it is very safe and effective,” the company said in a statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved chloroquinal for children under age 1, according to a report in Scientific American.
A spokeswoman for Basketts said the company is testing the product on babies at its New Jersey factory and will begin distributing it to retailers soon.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FDA’s approval comes on the heels of a decision by the agency to regulate chloroquines for use on infants, after a number of health groups raised concerns about the chemicals.
A spokesman for the company did not respond to an email asking whether the company would seek FDA approval of chloroquinated breast milk for use as a baby food cleaner.
The companies marketing materials also suggest that the products are safe for babies and that it doesn´t have to be used every day, but the products were not tested on infants.
“The cleaning products tested in this study were tested on newborns aged 1 to 8 months with no adverse effects on the infant,” the statement said.
“However, it is important to note that the cleaning products in this review are only intended for use in small quantities and should not be used by children under the age of 6 years,” the study said.
Baskett has been in the infant cleaning business since 2006, when it was founded by husband and wife team Lisa and David Baskits.
The firm makes products for many brands, including PetSmart, Nestlé, Walmart and other retailers.
Basket of joy maker, Basket Of Joy, said it would not disclose how many babies the products have tested on.
A spokesperson for the FDA declined to comment on whether chloroquination could be harmful for babies.
But Dr. David Mott, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said the potential effects of chlorozone-based cleaning products on children could be quite high.
“If you’re using a cleaning product to remove contaminants, then it’s possible that you’re actually contaminating the infant’s system,” he said.
Mott said it is common for baby formulas to contain chlorophenone-1, which is an industrial solvent used in chemical degreasers.
This can increase the risk of serious damage to the infant´s respiratory system.
Muthuram Muthu, an environmental health expert at New York University, said chlorophenones could be the culprit for some of the more serious problems children may be exposed to in the first few months of life.
“Chlorophenones can damage the infant respiratory system in very subtle ways,” he told ABC News.
“There is a lot of research that shows that the baby may be more susceptible to serious harm in the neonatal period.”
Muthuham Munguram, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said some research suggests that chlorophenonic acid, which comes from chloroplasts, is more likely to cause problems in babies who are at higher risk of developmental problems such as behavioral problems, allergies or behavioral problems.
“These are babies who may not be able to communicate and the risk for the most vulnerable infants is not low,” Muthum said.
