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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2015)
4C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2015 PARTING SHOT A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers Lauren Smith, of Tacoma, Wash., walks with her skimboard along Cannon Beach in June. JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian ODDITY MRWKHU¶V PLON D KRW FRPPRGLWy At $4 per ounce, market competition turns cutthroat By MICHAEL CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. — It could trade for 400 times more than the price of crude oil and 2,000 times more than iron ore. If sold off the shelf, it could cost more than 150 times the price of a gallon of cow’s milk and 15 times more than coffee. Going for as much as $4 per ounce, breast milk is a hot commodity that is emerging as a surprisingly cutthroat indus- try, one that states are seeking to regulate amid a battle for control between nonpro¿t and for-pro¿t banks that supply hospital neonatal units. The debate among the for-pro¿t and nonpro¿t or- ganizations can be sharp-el- bowed. It centers on whose processes result in the safest milk for premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, which need the milk if a mother has dif¿culty produc- ing enough or the child has trouble latching. Each side claims the moral high ground, with nonpro¿ts generally say- ing milk distribution should be altruistic and for-pro¿t companies arguing mothers deserve to be compensated. In the United States, there are two for-pro¿t companies and soon to be three, and one nonpro¿t that oversees 15 milk banks in the U.S. in ad- dition to three in Canada. Ten nonpro¿t banks are in devel- opment. AP Photo/Matt Rourke Rachel Palencik poses for a photograph with her frozen breast milk in West Chester, Pa. About 4,000 mothers participate in 15 nonprofit milk banks across the United States, but the entry of for-profit milk banks has led to tensions as state lawmakers begin regulat- ing the industry. Palencik wants to be sure that her milk goes to a mom and infant who need it. )RU SUR¿W RU FKDULWy Against this backdrop, lawmakers in New Jersey and Michigan are considering legislation to license banks, while legislators in California, Maryland, New York and Tex- as already have regulations. Mothers have long had far from a monolithic view on the question of milk banking, but what’s changing is the avail- ability of more options as the industry matures. For some, the work involved in cleaning bottle parts and in pumping and storing their milk war- rants being paid. Others view donating their milk, consid- ered superior to formula in nutrition and immunity-build- ing qualities, as a charitable service. “You just never know who it’s going to,” said Kelli Rus- sell, of Washington, N.C., who donates her breast milk. “It could go to someone who could someday cure cancer or it could be someone that marries my son or takes care of me if I need help one day if I’m in the hospital.” Rachel Palencik, of West Chester, Pa., said her breast milk was taking up space in her freezer, so she tried to donate it to a bank but didn’t have enough. So she tried to sell it and wouldn’t try it again. “A lot of it was either scammers or men wanting to consume it, which isn’t my cup of tea,” she said. So she ended up donating to an in- dividual mother rather than through a bank. There’s broad agreement in the milk-banking industry of a shortage of human milk available for hospitals and NICUs. The nonpro¿t +uman Milk Banking Association of North America estimates that there are 4,000 moms using its banks across the country and that it would take 60,000 to meet the demand for milk in hospitals nationwide. There is also a largely shared view that it’s import- ant for donor milk to be thor- oughly screened for bacteria, drugs and adulteration by cow’s milk. But the agreement largely stops there. The nonpro¿ts say they respect the right of moms to sell their milk because it is theirs, but they question the pro¿t motives of companies like Medolac, Prolacta and the soon-to-be-operational International Milk Bank. “I don’t know if you want the market inÀuenced. You want the market served,” said John +onaman, executive di- rector of the nonpro¿t +uman Milk Banking Association of North America. +e said he worries the for-pro¿t banks draw potential donors away from association milk banks, which is a problem because he believes a spirit of altruism should govern the industry. The for-pro¿t companies offer moms the chance to earn $1 an ounce to $2.50 an ounce for their milk. (Only the Breast, a for-pro¿t mar- ketplace, can offer $2.50 an ounce but does not directly pay the women, just connects them with paying clients.) In turn, hospitals can pay as lit- tle as $4 an ounce. The companies say that mothers have a right to earn money for their milk and that their model can end the short- age. MDVVLYH 6XSSOy Glenn Snow, co-founder of Only the Breast, is about to launch the International Milk Bank, which will link the network of 49,000 mem- bers and 65 million ounces of milk within the Only the Breast network with the new for-pro¿t bank. “We’re bringing a massive supply to market,” Snow said. “We’re going to save a lot of babies’ lives.” The competition also centers on how the milk is processed, which is import- ant to reduce contamination. Medolac, for example, high- lights that it uses a steriliza- tion process that kills poten- tial contaminants and also allows the milk to be stored at room temperature. Nonpro¿ts use a pasteurization method and then freeze the milk be- fore it’s shipped to hospitals, according to the nonpro¿t milk banking association. Others, such as Prolacta, specialize in the manufac- ture of human milk forti¿ers, sometimes needed to boost the nutrients in milk intended for premature babies. Michigan is considering requiring for-pro¿ts to abide by nonpro¿t standards, and lawmakers are calling for regular audits at the for-prof- it’s expense to make certain they’re following the guide- lines. The New Jersey bill does not distinguish between non- and for-pro¿t companies and instead calls on the state 'epartment of +ealth to set up licensing requirements. The New Jersey legis- lation does not detail what those requirements should be but says the department has to create provisions for staff quali¿cations and procedures for selecting and screening potential donors, as well as standards for collection, pro- cessing, storage, marketing and distribution of donated breast milk. Other states, like New York, have detailed regula- tions that govern donor quali- ¿cations and storage and col- lection protocols, along with rules requiring records to be kept. Associated Press writ- er Kathy Matheson in West Chester, Pa., contributed to this report. W hile other n ew spa pers give you less, The D a ily Astoria n GIVES YOU M ORE O u r n ew C APITAL B UREAU covers the sta te for you From left: Peter W on g, H illa ry Borru d , M a teu sz Perk ow sk i