Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Bisphenol A, or BPA, is found most commonly in polycarbonate plastics. According to the Bisphenol-A.org website, "Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical used primarily to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, both of which are used in countless applications that make our lives easier, healthier and safer, each and every day."
But the Environmental Working Group states, "BPA is an ingredient in plastics and the epoxy resins that line food cans. Low doses of BPA lead to a range of health problems, including birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems in laboratory animals. |
| According to the American plastics Council, products that may contain the chemical bisphenol A include: hard, clear plastic baby bottles hard, clear, sometimes tinted, plastic water bottles hard, clear plastic bowls, tableware, storage containers liners inside food and drink cans dental sealant to prevent cavities electronic equipment sports safety equipment medical devices pet carriers spray-on flame retardants
There's more to this story, too -- not only is it toxic, it could affect your child's metabolism. |
| A.
According to the American plastics Council, products that may contain the chemical bisphenol A include: hard, clear plastic baby bottles hard, clear, sometimes tinted, plastic water bottles hard, clear plastic bowls, tableware, storage containers liners inside food and drink cans dental sealant to prevent cavities electronic equipment sports safety equipment medical devices pet carriers spray-on flame retardants
There's more to this story, too -- not only is it toxic, it could affect your child's metabolism. |
| Heating plastics greatly increases the potential for leaching of chemicals into your food.
Avoid drinking beverages out of plastic containers. This includes bottled water, juice drinks, and others. Drink out of glass or stainless steel.
Greatly reduce or eliminate your consumption of canned food products. Canned foods typically contain BPA due to the lining inside the can.
Avoid storing food in plastic containers. Instead, choose Pyrex or class containers (stainless steel is also acceptable). Also avoid using plastic sandwich bags or plastic wrap products, wherever possible. |
| The burden of proof lies with government and lobbyists, who say the doses found in canned goods and plastics are very low. But what dose of this toxic chemical is really safe? No one seems to know.
The toxicity of BPA
"BPA reads like a case study of how badly our chemical safety system is broken," said Jane Houlihan, Vice President for Research at EWG. "We've known it's toxic for 75 years, it's polluting the bodies of almost all Americans, but we allow it in our food at levels that leave no margin of safety for pregnant women and young children. |
| But the Environmental Working Group states, "BPA is an ingredient in plastics and the epoxy resins that line food cans. Low doses of BPA lead to a range of health problems, including birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems in laboratory animals. Despite the growing evidence of risk to human health, there are no limits on the amount of BPA allowed in canned food.
The tests found that pregnant women and infants who eat even a single serving of some canned foods are exposed to unsafe doses of BPA. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Also found in toys, bedding, clothing and more
Triclosan is also used in plastics and fabrics, where it goes under the trade names Microban and Biofresh respectively. It is infused into or used as an additive in a number of consumer products like toys, bedding, trash bags, socks, kitchen utensils, textiles and plastics.
"Over 95% of the uses of triclosan are in consumer products that are disposed of in residential drains. In a U.S. Geological Survey study of 95 different organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 Water Bottles
As stated in earlier chapters, you should be drinking a lot of water, but please beware of plastic water bottles. plastics made from polycarbonate resin can leach bisphenol-A (BPA), a potent hormone disruptor. BPA, a chemical found in epoxy resin and polycarbonate plastics, may impair the reproductive organs and have adverse effects on tumors, breast tissue development, and prostate development by reducing sperm count.
BPA can leach into water bottles through normal wear and tear and exposure to heat and cleaning agents. |
| Side note: Baby bottles made from polycarbonate plastics have quietly disappeared from the market despite industry assurances that polycarbonate plastics are safe.)
There are two approaches to take to avoid exposure to BPA. First, if you are active and take water with you, switch to a stainless steel water bottle. But, be careful. Many products on the market are lined with an epoxy finish. This defeats the purpose. Make sure that the bottle is stainless steel both inside and out. Stainless steel water bottles are light, durable, and hold both hot and cold liquids well. |
Devra Davis
See book keywords and concepts |
 Well before Braiman and Pacinelli survived their brushes with modern chemicals, workers in plastics factories grew familiar with another strange effect.
Stunted fingers had been reported in individual production workers in Italy and France as early as the 1940s, but it was a rare condition and had not been linked to vinyl chloride. Before 1965 only seventy-two cases of dissolved bone, or acro-osteolysis, had been recorded in the world literature. Most of these were in families that shared a genetic defect. |
| We know that many solvents and some plastics can distort the way the body produces hormones. Life is a complex mixture of good and bad things we can't control. We rarely can get the right amount of information together on any group of people with shared exposures to learn whether their chances of getting cancer have been affected by the mixtures with which they live and work. Our scientific knowledge has not brought us very far toward understanding why any given individual gets breast cancer. |
| We also know that benzene dissolves plastics. But we will never know. Every time we would come in to sample a spot, the guys from the plant would know we were coming and would tell us where to look."
"What happened then?" I asked. "That must have been a little unnerving."
He sighed and nodded. "Yep. Well, the next day we went out to drill new wells, right where our old one had dissolved. But we couldn't. Right on top of the spot where we had pulled up empty string, someone had poured a new cement pad with a hydrochloric acid tank. |
| This elegant, simple interaction created a revolution in the chemistry of plastics.
When assembled into chains, or polymers, vinyl chloride becomes polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and is nearly indestructible—as strong as cement pipe, as flexible as rubber and cheaper and lighter than many of the things it replaced. Benzene is one of the few things that can make it disintegrate.
As a slightly sweet smelling gas placed under pressure in metal cans, vinyl chloride can be used as a propellant for all sorts of liquids. At one time it whipped heavy cream, vaginal deodorants and hair sprays into the air. |
| Aware of this work before its publication and fearful of what it could mean to the plastics industry, a group of companies, including Montedison, a major Italian manufacturer of vinyl chloride, had earlier commissioned Cesare Maltoni, a toxicologist based in Bologna, to begin a series of studies of vinyl chloride gas.
Maltoni's work would change the way the world looked at this compound and would also set the stage for rethinking the way such research should be done. For two years, four hours a day, five days a week, five hundred lab rats were subjected to various levels of the gas. |
| If it wasn't for plastics, now, the price of wood would be so expensive that the average man couldn't afford to have a rockin' chair like this one on where I'm settin'. And yet that's killin' people. It may kill me.
But look how much safer it's made an automobile or the wiring in your home. So far now they only got twenty-eight dead [worldwide]. And they got two or three they don't know what's goin' to happen to them. But the industry is tremendously important. That's why it's so important for the industry to survive—for the employees that work with it. |
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
See book keywords and concepts |
| Scientists are bioengineering plants to manufacture pharmaceutical compounds (a technique known as "pharming"), trees which yield fruit and nuts much earlier in the season than they would naturally, plants that produce new kinds of plastics, and fish that reproduce more rapidly. Margaret Wertheim, in a 2002 article in LA Weekly, expressed fears that "Quietly and stealthily, our fields are being turned into industrial factories. This is potentially the most dangerous technology since nuclear power, yet we have no way of finding out what is being done. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
See book keywords and concepts |
 Delicious cruciferous vegetable that helps protect us against toxins, especially xenohormones (hormone disruptors in pesticides, plastics, pollution, etc.), and helps us detoxify. Protects us against cancer. Loaded with indole-3-carbinol. Tastes great raw or cooked.
10. Buckwheat: Delicious, versatile seed that can be used instead of wheat or other gluten-containing grains. Great as a side dish, or for use in making waffles, pancakes, or pasta. Has a low glycemic index and is a rich source of magnesium and manganese.
Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., c.N.s.,
F.A.C.N. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 The bottles used to package bottled water are almost always made from plastics containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a carcinogenic chemical that often leaches into the water and gets swallowed by consumers. Click here to read our articles on BPA, a chemical widely believed to contribute to certain cancers. This contamination factor, however, is true for all products stored in plastic bottles, not merely water. Sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks and even "healthy" smoothie drinks packaged in plastic all share a common risk of BPA contamination.
Bottled water vs. |
Michael Friedman, ND
See book keywords and concepts |
 Toloken S. plastics possible culprits in early puberty. plastics News 2001 Feb 12.
8. Colon I, et al. Identification of phthalate esters in the serum of young Puerto Rican girls with premature breast development. Environmental Health Perspectives 2000 Sep;108(9).
9. Legler JM, et al. Brain and other central nervous system cancers: Recent trends in incidence and mortality. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 199;.91 (16): 1382-90.
10. BuckleyJD, et al. Pesticide exposures in children with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cancer 2000;89(11).
11. Anon. |
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
See book keywords and concepts |
| Heavy metals accumulated from a variety of sources such as pet ID tags, surgical pins, needles and even plastics wind up in this supposedly healthy feed ...
143 n x >
Unsold supermarket meats, chicken, and fish arrive in Styrofoam trays and shrink-wrap.] Every week, millions of packages of plastic-wrapped meat go through the rendering process and become one of the unwanted ingredients in animal feed. |
Ron Garner
See book keywords and concepts |
 Industrial chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and insecticides, plastics, radiation, and synthetic products are changing the natural health-giving properties of our food. They introduce toxins to our bodies that our ancestors did not have to cope with.
Some industrial chemicals, detergents, and food dyes are classified as hormone disrupters because they are estrogen mimics. Our bodies mistake synthetic estrogens for the real thing, accept it, and process it, which causes an imbalance of our natural hormones. |
Stacy Malkan
See book keywords and concepts |
 A major turning point came during World War II when government subsidies spurred the production of petroleum and its byproducts — the petrochemicals and plastics that would become the building blocks for the postwar material economy. Miracle makeup products, wrinkle-free clothes, stain-proof carpets, plastic toys and electronic gadgets galore now fill our homes and bring a wealth of convenience, fun and comfort to our lives. |
Eric R. Braverman
See book keywords and concepts |
 ENVIRONMENT
Your serotonin balance is particularly sensitive to the adverse effects of PCBs, pesticides, and certain chemicals found in plastics, because the neuron damage caused by exposure to these hazards can make you unable to rest. Rinse all of your food, especially fruit, thoroughly. Be observant about pesticide spraying if you live near or visit farms. Never go near burning plastics. As for PCBs, be cognizant of where your fish comes from, opting for wild fish whenever possible, and drink water only from reputable bottiers or after it has been filtered. |
Michael Friedman, ND
See book keywords and concepts |
| Plastics possible culprits in early puberty. plastics News 2001 Feb 12.
8. Colon I, et al. Identification of phthalate esters in the serum of young Puerto Rican girls with premature breast development. Environmental Health Perspectives 2000 Sep;108(9).
9. Legler JM, et al. Brain and other central nervous system cancers: Recent trends in incidence and mortality. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 199;.91 (16): 1382-90.
10. BuckleyJD, et al. Pesticide exposures in children with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cancer 2000;89(11).
11. Anon. Child's exposure to pesticides hikes lymphoma risk. |
Stacy Malkan
See book keywords and concepts |
| Major institutions, government agencies and entire industries can create markets for non-toxic products and drive down costs for bio-based plastics, green chemistry, renewable energy and other solutions for the future. The billion-dollar cosmetics industry, of course, could be a major force for positive
¦0 \l
Green...
Schools: GreenSchools.net Hospitals: NoHarm.org Buildings: HealthyBuilding.Net Business: GreenGuide.com Science: SEHN.org Computers: ComputerTakeBack.com News: EnvironmentalHealthNews.org
Teens rally for safe cosmetics around Union Square in San Francisco. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| BPA, a chemical found in epoxy resin and polycarbonate plastics, may impair the reproductive organs and have adverse effects on tumors, breast tissue development, and prostate development by reducing sperm count.
BPA can leach into water bottles through normal wear and tear and exposure to heat and cleaning agents. This includes leaving your plastic water bottle in your car during errands, in your backpack during hikes, and running it through your dishwasher or using harsh detergents. |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
See book keywords and concepts |
 Whenever we heat plastics, we increase the likelihood of leaching out chemicals. Some drinking straws carry the warning on the label "not for hot beverages" for good reason: if you put that straw into a boiling cup of hot cocoa, you are creating something akin to a hot-water extraction technique—not unlike that used in labs to help isolate and draw out chemicals—causing the chemicals in the straw to be jettisoned directly into your yummy cup of cocoa. |
| When Becky eats a dinner of mako shark in a pepper crust at her favorite seafood eatery, she is ingesting those plastics as well as traceable levels of the highly active contraceptives—from the excretion of birth-control pills through our sewage system—that also now appear regularly in test samples of U.S. seawater. These industrial compounds—both of which are known endocrine disruptors— magnify in intensity as they are passed up the food chain from host to host, reaching their second to highest concentration in us—and their highest of all in human breast milk. |
| Another well-known endocrine disruptor comes in the form of a group of chemicals known as phthalates, which are added to cosmetics to make them creamier, to plastic bottles and plastics in general to make them more flexible and less brittle, to children's toys to make them more pliable, as well as to insecticides. |
| As a result, they continually leach out from the plastics that make up our computers, TVs, and wire insulation, the insides of our window frames, the upholstery, carpets, and clothing we buy, and the lint from the clothes dryer into the air around us. From there they do not waft away in the breeze or disappear; instead, they fall to the floor and attach to the minuscule bits of dust in our homes. One recent study found PBDEs in every single sample of dust evaluated from seventy homes across seven states from New York to California. |
Email this page to a friend
