Breastfeeding is the best source of nutrition for infants and women need to be encouraged to breast-feed. However, potential risks associated with contamination of human milk by Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) need to be factored into overall public health (Lopes et al., 2016; Pajewska-Szmyt et al., 2019). EDCs can also be present in infant formula and/or its containers. Therefore, it is important to understand the levels of EDCs contamination in pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as in infant formula in order to reduce exposure and prevent the onset of long-term adverse effects in infants.

Our project aims at determining the correlation between levels of maternal milk contamination/exposure to EDCs with the health status of infants to support public decisions and develop strategies and preventive actions to reducing the mother-infant exposure. We estimate that changes in women’s life and nutritional habits can partially decrease direct exposure to EDCs by improving the quality of the environment surrounding mother-infant dyads. Moreover, appropriate policies might at the same time reduce EDCs level in infant formula and subsequently in the child.