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Apr 13th, 2010 04:56 PM
TheCoolinator
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Leader View Post
Sometimes I kind of feel like dying anyway.
At least we can agree on something.

"Swing low....sweet chariot...coming for to carry me home!"
Apr 13th, 2010 04:50 PM
The Leader Sometimes I kind of feel like dying anyway.
Apr 13th, 2010 04:35 PM
Colonel Flagg
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Leader View Post
But aren't there other chemicals in plastics that have never been studied for carcinogenic effects?
Actually testing something for carcinegonicity is horrifically long term, and sometimes inconclusive. Dr. Bruce Ames (Cal-Berkeley) devised a mutagenicity test, hypothesizing that a mutagenic chemical eventually will prove to be a carcinogen. There is no conclusive proof to this hypothesis, but the preponderance of the evidence suggest this to be the case. Mutagenicity is far easier and quicker to show than carcinogenicity.

Pedantically speaking of course.

Specifically, yes, there are some chemicals in some plastics (car parts, guns, garage doors, etc.) that are not meant for human consumption, yet can potentially find their way into the environment, and thence into the human body. This is a matter of risk assessment (one of the cornerstones, incidentally, of Dr. Ames' research) and is extremely difficult to judge. For example, everyone KNOWS that plastics don't degrade in the environment; they last for hundreds of thousands of years, right? Therefore, these plastics represent a low risk.

Well, Dr. Saido proved quite the opposite - the ocean's chemistry (saline, minerals and sunlight) provide a reaction vessel where a polycarbonate bottle CAN degrade, and in a few months or years, and not hundreds. Whoops. This raises the risk factor quite substantially.

Unfortunately for us, we've been dumping plastics onto the ground for many many decades (damned litterers!), plastics that can eventually find their way to large bodies of water - rivers, lakes estuaries and of course, the ocean. There are many hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic floating about the Earth's oceans, each degrading and leaching their component parts back into the environment. BPA is the tip of the proverbial iceberg - what about plastics that have been treated with antistatic agents that have been shown to be carcinogenic?

Scary? Yes, but what to do about it? It's in the environment, and if our previous discussion on climate change serves as anything, it shows that the environment is really big. This stuff isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And there's no getting away from it completely.

Using glass containers and purified water only serves to make you feel better; it does nothing substantive to limit exposure.
Apr 13th, 2010 02:37 PM
TheCoolinator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colonel Flagg View Post
Other plastics (e.g. Nylon, polyethylene) do not contain this additive. Or use containers that are certified BPA-free.
Well,

At least I can still wear my Nylon Jogging suit with pride.
Apr 13th, 2010 02:29 PM
The Leader But aren't there other chemicals in plastics that have never been studied for carcinogenic effects?
Apr 13th, 2010 02:26 PM
Colonel Flagg
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCoolinator View Post
I know a lot of people with new borns at my job have been switching to glass baby bottles because of this.
That's not wise - glass shatters; it can cause more problems than it solves. There are certified BPA-free baby bottles (they're pinkish, so you need baby boys who are secure in their manhood )that are more expensive, yet do not break when they are dropped.

As a general rule, stay away from polycarbonate food containers, which uses BPA as a platicizer/processing aid. Other plastics (e.g. Nylon, polyethylene) do not contain this additive. Or use containers that are certified BPA-free.
Apr 13th, 2010 11:54 AM
TheCoolinator
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Leader View Post
Lowers sperm count too, don't it?
Probably,

It's gotta affect the thyroid too. I know a lot of people with new borns at my job have been switching to glass baby bottles because of this.

Scary stuff.
Apr 13th, 2010 11:42 AM
The Leader Lowers sperm count too, don't it?
Apr 13th, 2010 09:36 AM
TheCoolinator
BPA hormone disruptor now contaminates Earth's oceans, scientists warn

Quote:
Earlier this year, research linked bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastics and a powerful hormone disrupter, to heart disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/027974_b...). Now, in the March issue of the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, researchers have reported yet another newly discovered danger posed by BPA. Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University, and his research team have found for the first time that BPA exposure during pregnancy can cause abnormalities in the uterus of offspring and permanent alterations in DNA.

But at least you can avoid plastics and therefore avoid exposure to the BPA, right? Unfortunately, another group of scientists has just announced that's getting harder and harder to do. Bottom line: there is now solid evidence that Earth's oceans have been contaminated on a global scale with BPA.

Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D., of Nihon University in Chiba, Japan, and his colleagues announced their startling and worrisome findings at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in San Francisco recently. He stated that the massive BPA contamination of oceans resulted from hard plastic trash thrown in the seas as well as from another surprising source -- the epoxy plastic paints used to seal the hulls of ships.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028567_BPA_oceans.html
Guess I'm switching to glass.

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