Participant experiences in a breastmilk biomonitoring study: A qualitative assessment

Participants of the Greater Boston PBDE Breastmilk Biomonitoring Study were contacted and asked about their experiences in the study: the impact of study recruitment materials on attitudes towards breastfeeding; if participants had wanted individual biomonitoring results; if the protocol by which individual results were distributed met participants' needs; and the impact of individual results on attitudes towards breastfeeding.No participants reported reducing the duration of breastfeeding because of the biomonitoring study, but some responses suggested that breastmilk biomonitoring studies have the potential to raise anxieties about breastfeeding. Almost all participants wished to obtain individual results. Although several reported some concern about individual body burden, none reported reducing the duration of breastfeeding because of biomonitoring results. The study literature and report-back method were found to mitigate potential negative impacts.Biomonitoring study design, including clear communication about the benefits of breastfeeding and the manner in which individual results are distributed, can prevent negative impacts of biomonitoring on breastfeeding. Adoption of more specific standards for biomonitoring studies and continued study of risk communication issues related to biomonitoring will help protect participants from harm.Biomonitoring, or the measure of chemicals that have accumulated in the body ("body burden"), has long been used to monitor individual and population-wide exposures to chemicals such as lead and mercury [1,2]. Epidemiologists and exposure assessors trying to understand exposure pathways between the environment and the individual, as well as advocacy groups drawing attention to the ubiquitous nature of environmental contaminants, have used biomonitoring as an effective tool [2,3].Public interest in biomonitoring has increased; technology to measure chemicals in various media has also improved, resulting in more biomonitoring studi