Endocrine Abstracts

The Life MILCH project -“Mother and Infant dyads: Lowering the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals in milk for a Healthy Life” (www.lifemilch.eu) is a pilot study aimed at reducing the impact of environmental endocrine disruptors (EDs) on human health by assessing exposure and effects on mother-child pairs, with breastmilk as a main biomarker of exposure. The first screening phase of the project on 500 mother-child pairs enrolled in three different Italian locations, showed significant associations between mothers’ lifestyle and diet and ED levels in maternal urine, breastmilk, and infant urine samples at different timepoints (1, 3, 6, 12 months of age), and identified possible main sources of maternal exposure to EDs to establish a risk assessment model. Based on this evidence-driven model, the project has developed a specific prevention/awareness campaign and interventions for reducing maternal exposure to EDs. Our hypothesis is that a change in food habits and lifestyle would reduce the levels of specific EDs in the mothers, their breastmilk and, consequently, in the infants. These prevention activities were carried out in the three project locations and with three specific targets: first involving pregnant woman and breastfeeding mothers, and then woman of childbearing age and health professionals. The efficacy of the prevention campaign and intervention was assessed by a subsequent biomonitoring of ED levels in the breast milk of 150 women who have participated in the campaign during pregnancy/nursing, including an assessment of their infants’ ED exposure levels and development at 6 months of age (second screening – currently ongoing). Finally, we will compare the results obtained in the 2nd screening with those obtained in the 1st screening to clarify whether specific interventions could effectively reduce and prevent exposure to some EDs. (LIFE18 ENV/IT/000460).