Posted on 01/20/2008 9:13:33 PM PST by neverdem
In the 1967 film classic The Graduate, a businessman corners Benjamin Braddock at a cocktail party and gives him a bit of career advice. "Just one word…plastics."
Although Benjamin didn't heed that recommendation, plenty of other young graduates did. Today, the planet is awash in products spawned by the plastics industry. Residues of plastics have become ubiquitous in the environment—and in our bodies.
A federal government study now reports that bisphenol A (BPA)—the building block of one of the most widely used plastics—laces the bodies of the vast majority of U.S. residents young and old.
Manufacturers link BPA molecules into long chains, called polymers, to make polycarbonate plastics. All of those clear, brittle plastics used in baby bottles, food ware, and small kitchen appliances (like food-processor bowls) are made from polycarbonates. BPA-based resins also line the interiors of most food, beer, and soft-drink cans. With use and heating, polycarbonates can break down, leaching BPA into the materials they contact. Such as foods.
And that could be bad if what happens in laboratory animals also happens in people, because studies in rodents show that BPA can trigger a host of harmful changes, from reproductive havoc to impaired blood-sugar control and obesity (SN: 9/29/07, p. 202).
For the new study, scientists analyzed urine from some 2,500 people who had been recruited between 2003 and 2004 for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Roughly 92 percent of the individuals hosted measurable amounts of BPA, according to a report in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. It's the first study to measure the pollutant in a representative cross-section of the U.S. population.
Typically, only small traces of BPA turned up, concentrations of a few parts per billion in urine, note chemist Antonia M. Calafat and her colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I wonder what Sara Ann thinks about this.
Babies, Bottles, and Bisphenol A: The Story of a Scientist-Mother
Many animal studies focus on the effect of BPA exposure during fetal development, when cells and tissues are especially susceptible to hormonal alterations. Not only does BPA disrupt proper functioning of the placenta during gestation, but it causes many deleterious health effects in offspring exposed in utero [11], including enlarged prostates, malformed urethra [12,13], and a higher risk of prostate cancer in male offspring [14], and genital tract alterations [12,13] and earlier puberty in female offspring [13]. Exposure also affects brain development, causing behavioral differences between males and females to be lost in offspring exposed in the uterus [15].
I couldn't find the Material Safety Data Sheet(MSDS) for BPA, CASRN 80-05-7 without a request for personal information.
“.. because studies in rodents show that BPA can trigger a host of harmful changes, from reproductive havoc to impaired blood-sugar control and obesity”
A few ppb of BPA won’t affect blood sugar like the nearly 120 pounds of sugar most Americans eat annually.
Because melamine resin is often used in food packaging and tableware, melamine at ppm level (1 part per million) in food and beverage has been reported due to migration from melamine-containing resins.
from end of Wikipedia entry here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine
Thanks for the 2nd ping, neverdem
You’re welcome. Thanks for the link.
*eyeroll*
Dang, you're good!
SAM'S VOICE I have a big deal coming up that's going to make us all rich. George, you remember that night in Martini's bar when you told me you read someplace about making plastics out of soybeans?
GEORGE Huh? Yeah-yeah-yeah . . . soybeans. Yeah.
SAM'S VOICE Well, Dad's snapped up the idea. He's going to build a factory outside of Rochester. How do you like that?
Mary is watching George interestedly. George is very conscious of her, close to him.
GEORGE Rochester? Well, why Rochester?
SAM'S VOICE Well, why not? Can you think of anything better?
GEORGE Oh, I don't know . . . why not right here? You remember that old tool and machinery works? You tell your father he can get that for a song. And all the labor he wants, too. Half the town was thrown out of work when they closed down.
SAM'S VOICE That so? Well, I'll tell him. Hey, that sounds great! Oh, baby, I knew you'd come through. Now, here's the point. Mary, Mary, you're in on this too. Now listen. Have you got any money?
GEORGE Money? Yeah . . . well, a little.
SAM'S VOICE Well, now listen. I want you to put every cent you've got into our stock, you hear? And George, I may have a job for you; that is, unless you're still married to that broken-down Building and Loan. This is the biggest thing since radio, and I'm letting you in on the ground floor. Oh, Mary . . . Mary . . .
can trigger a host of harmful changes, from reproductive havoc ...
Is this what’s causing all the metrosexuals?
Here is some interesting info.
Please add me to your Health/Science ping list.
I think the one thing that would really frighten me is is if these plastics were made in China.
Ugh.
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