GOING straight to the heart of the matter, Dr John Chisholm, deputy chairman of the British Medication Association's GPs committee, insists that mothers have a right to know the facts about reports that leading brands of baby milk contain chemicals that could impair fertility. He's right, of course.

Nine brands are said to contain levels of the chemicals close to those found to damage the testicles of baby rats and reduce their sperm counts.

We support the Consumers' Association and Labour's consumer affairs minister Nigel Griffiths who said the names of the brands should be published immediately. Parents are entitled to choose to avoid feeding these products to their babies. Unless the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food names names, then people, will think there is a cover up and that producers are being protected while the consumers' interests are being ignored.

Mothers will be frightened by these reports and should receive as much information as possible.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.