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The WHO breastmilk monitoring project is part of the Stockholm Convention Effectiveness Evaluation Program, which mandates the global monitoring of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) on a regular basis.  Approximately 30 countries in the Global South have been invited to participate in this breastmilk monitoring program by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).  UNEP is Secretariat for the Stockholm Convention.

Below is a brief description of key components of the WHO breastmilk biomonitoring project. You can find a more detailed description of the project at:
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/POPprotocol.pdf

What is listed below is a simple version to help us think about ways we might work together.

• Selection of National Coordinator – Within each country accepting the invitation to participate, an individual will be designated to oversee the national biomonitoring project.  This individual will be selected by each government and may be an individual within the Ministry of Health, or a health professional closely associated with public health programs.
  

Action:  Your group might want to recommend to your government an individual who is well informed about women’s health issues, breastfeeding and toxic chemical regulation to be  National Coordinator in your country.  If a National Coordinator has been identified, please share this information with MaPP because it will be useful to develop a list of all National Coordinators for information distribution later on.

• Recruitment - Women to participate in the biomonitoring projected will be recruited probably through a well-baby or a women’s health care clinic, according to guidelines.

Action:  There may be opportunities to work with the clinic, the National Coordinator, and women’s health and advocacy groups  to develop fact sheets for use in the recruitment process.

• Sample collection - Samples of breastmilk from first time mothers will be collected by health professionals or community health workers, according to how the national coordinator plans and available resources. The participating country will send a pooled set of samples to the WHO Reference Lab for testing of POPs chemicals. Depending on resources, a set of individual samples may also be tested within each country for levels of POPs chemicals. The results from participating countries will be collected and evaluated by WHO and its advisory body and returned to the National Coordinators before being shared with the UNEP Stockholm Secretariat.  Each country will be free to publish its own results.
  

Action:  MaPP partners may want to support their own countries in testing individual samples using national laboratory capacity for current and additional POPs.  Importantly, MaPP partners may want to discuss with their National Coordinators how best to release information about project results in ways that deeply support breastfeeding while providing valuable information about POPs chemicals and ways to reduce exposures.  MaPP will be circulating case studies describing experiences in communicating biomonitoring results to help us make decisions in each of our countries about the best ways to talk about toxic chemicals in all our bodies, as indicated by levels of toxic chemicals found in breastmilk.

UNEP and WHO will be informing MaPP about ongoing progress in the global monitoring project periodically, and we will coordinate together MaPP activities  as the project unfolds.