Cadmium in Finnish breast milk, a longitudinal study.

Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry was employed to analyse cadmium in breast milk. Twenty breast milk samples were donated by seven mothers during 6 months of lactation. All milk samples represented every feeding during a period of 24 h, having foremilk an hindmilk in equal proportions. The median cadmium concentration in the 1st month was 2.0 micrograms/l (range 1.7-3.1 micrograms/l, 7 samples) and then declined to 1.5 micrograms/l (range 1.3-2.5 micrograms/l, 7 samples) and 1.6 micrograms/l (range 1.2-2.0 micrograms/l, 6 samples) in the 3rd and 6th months, respectively. At the age of 1 and 3 months when the infants were totally breast fed the average weekly intake of cadmium was 2.7 and 1.5 micrograms/kg. This is below the provisional tolerable weekly intake of man, from 6.7 to 8.3 micrograms/kg, proposed by WHO.