goddessing

BPA, a synthetic plasticizer used to make shatter- and chemical-resistant plastics (polycarbonates) and resins that line food cans, among other things, has been linked to...

a staggering number of health problems, including prostate and breast cancer, obesity, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, brain damage, immune suppression, lowered sperm counts and early puberty. (Is Plastic Killing Us?)

Studies of the effects of plastics on humans, animals, and the environment done by chemical manufacturers show very different results from those done by academic researchers:

In a recent paper in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, Dr. vom Saal [an academic biologist] compared studies on BPA that were funded by industry, all 11 of which found no effect, with studies funded by governments, of which 94 out of 104 documented harmful effects. "The chances of 100 per cent of industry studies being negative, and over 90 per cent of government studies being positive is about one in two billion," he said. (Are Plastics Killing Us?)

In the largest survey yet undertaken of human body burdens of bisphenol A and nonylphenol, scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control, found that 95% and 51% of Americans carry detectable levels of bisphenol A and nonylphenol. These concentrations are comparable to those reported in other studies.

For bisphenol A, the observed levels are clearly within the range of concentrations known to reliably cause adverse effects in laboratory experiments. The animal and cell studies link bisphenol A exposure to a wide range of health effects. (Virtuall all Americans Exposed to Bisphenol A)

Pat Hunt, a geneticist at Washington State University, was shocked when she discovered how great a difference a worn-out plastic cage could make. Suddenly, 40 percent of the healthy control mice in an experiment began to make eggs with grossly abnormal chromosome behavior where she expected to see a rate of 1 to 2 percent. She traced the problem back to BPA they were exposed to when it leached out of their cages and water bottles. (Bad Chemistry)

BPA is just one of over 100,000 chemicals synthesized and put to use since WWII, very few of them safety-tested.

Theo Colbourn, a woman and pharmacist who went back to school after raising four children and got a Ph.D. at age 58 (great role model for us queens and crones), did post-graduate work that led her on a synthetic chemicals research odyssey through drinking water in Colorado, animal studies around the Great Lakes, thousands of research papers and government reports, and eventually an intensive study of endocrinology.

In 1991, she pulled together a meeting of experts in many fields to look at the data she had been collecting.

The term endocrine disruption was coined at the meeting... The participants agreed that many man-made chemicals had the potential to disrupt the endocrine system of animals, including humans ... and that many wildlife populations had already been affected. Even more disturbing, they emphasized that the fetus and newborn are at greatest risk, and that the effects might not be manifested until the animal was mature. Perhaps the greatest bombshell was the statement that "the concentrations of a number of synthetic sex hormone [disruptors] measured in the U.S. human population today are well within the range and dosages at which effects are seen in wildlife populations." (Bad Chemistry)

I've long thought that the "epidemic of obesity" had an environmental explanation, that pollution was much more likely a culprit than lifestyle, despite the admitted problems of inactivity and access to fast foods we have here in the U.S. I've pictured the victims of this epidemic as canaries in the coal mine, and I may be right. It turns out that the obesity epidemic is worldwide, blowing the lid off the myth that this phenomenon is restricted to North American lifestyles:

A recent comparative survey of overweight and obese women in the age group 15 to 49 years in developing countries and the US, shows that there are more overweight women in the Middle East than in the US. The picture is no different when it comes to the US and the CEE-CIS and Latin American countries (CEE is Central Eastern Europe and CIS is Commonwealth of Independent States). (The March of the Overblown)

And by necessity, the women (and men) in these other countries are much more physically active than we are in the U.S. -- they have fewer cars, little public transportation, fewer machines to do work for them (washing machines, for example), and they have less access to fast foods.

Plastics and other synthetic chemicals dispersed into the worldwide environment in the latter half of the 20th century; a worldwide epidemic of obesity (among other maladies) at the same time. Coincidence? I think not.

Let's quit blaming the victims and start pointing the finger at the culprits whose damage far outstrips that of fast-food companies. Let's start demanding remedies that don't involve feeding us life-threatening pills and putting us through life-threatening surgeries.

I've been spending time noticing how much BPA there is in my life. The vitamins and supplements I take for health come in plastic bottles, even from upscale, health-conscious labs. I've been drinking water for years from plastic bottles, like everyeone else. Water for health; plastic for illness. We drink filtered water at home that's delivered through plastic tubing. We store raw and cooked foods in plastic containers. Last night, as I was going to sleep, I realized that even in my sleep I can't escape from plastic. The CPAP I use to treat sleep apnea, which came along with fibromyalgia, is primarily pastic -- plastic tubing, housing, and mask. So all night long I'm breathing air through plastic.

OMG! What can I do? I clearly can't step out of the plastic world. It pervades the world I live in.

None of us can step out of this pool of plastic we're living in. Other than educating ourselves, figuring out how to put pressure on government and industry, and ranting, what can we do?

The best advice I've seen is to cut back where plastics hurt the most: stop using plastic baby bottles; get rid of plastic cutting boards; stop heating food in plastic containers; buy some stainless steel bottles for carting around your drinking water.

Do a Google search on the term Bisphenol A Manufacturers for the Chemical Register's list of manufacturers of BPA. You won't be surprised to see the Dow Chemical Company heading the list. Remember Bhopal? Remember Napalm?

Comments: great blog...thanks!

# posted by  deborah oak : 8:20 AM