took you long enough

Many WEEKS after its own advisory board accused the FDA of approving Bisphenol-A for use well before adequate testing was done, and without consideration of possible dangers, the agency has finally decided to reconsider the issue.

The FDA approved Bisphenol-A for use based on a TWO multigenerational studies by research groups that had received grant money from the American Plastics Council. Since the green light that BPA was supposedly safe for use in food packaging and water bottles, many independent studies have been issued in which the findings were not so positive.

In September, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that adults with high levels of BPA in their urine were more prone to heart and liver disease and diabetes.

More than 200 animal studies have linked ingesting minute amounts of the substance to a range of reproductive problems, brain damage, immune deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, and behavioral oddities like hyperactivity, learning deficits and reduced maternal willingness to nurse offspring.

The FDA’s position was that this data lacked specifics as to how the study was overseen, and lacked raw data. However, it was noted by many that the FDA never requested to see extensive versions of the published articles.

Manufacturers of the plastics still contend, despite the data otherwise, that BPA is safe. Rather than pulling the BPA products from shelves, they have created BPA-free products to be marketed side by side. The manufacturers position is that they would like consumers to “make the best decisions for their families.” There is one issue with this: if consumers are unaware or being lied to about safety and efficacy, how can they make the best decisions?

And, so that you are unaware, BPA is not only found in plastic.

More than 2 billion pounds of BPA are produced each year. According to the Can Manufacturers Institute, more than 22 billion cans to be used for food and more than 100 billion cans for beer and soft drinks were produced last year. John Rost, a chemist and chair of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, says “the vast majority” of them are lined with a resin coating containing BPA.

A study by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has shown that BPA exists in 93% of urine in the sample population tested. Given that statistic, and the potential harm listed above, don’t you think it is time you stop using and buying products with potential BPA exposure?

If you are reading this, you have no excuse for not knowing about the harm done from this material.

The full report came from the NY Times, HERE.

man oh man

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a documentary called The Disappearing Male. Unfortunately, it is still unavailable in the United States. However, more and more data is supporting the same claim.

In new reports released, data is continuing to indicate that “a host of common chemicals is feminising the males of every class of vertebrate animals, including humans. For some time scientists have been concerned about the “gender-bending” effects of some artificial chemicals, especially phthalates, used to soften plastics. The latest research, however, suggests that the scale of the problem is greater than anyone had realised.”

We have worried for many years, now, about the harm to the environment and its effect on our longevity as members of this planet. I don’t think anyone considered that the affect would be on our ability to reproduce or the extinction of one sex over another. That does seem to be the direction we are going.

If you want more information on hormone altering chemicals, you can go to the category of Bisphenol-A (the side bar) and learn more about it. One promising thing is a panel of scientists meeting with President-elect Obama to discuss a ban on these chemicals. We just hope it isn’t too late.

The whole article can be found HERE

an editorial side note to discuss irony: I recently saw a documentary on homosexuality, and specifically the psychology to being homophobic against gay males. It is in large part due to the societal belief that feminine men are something to be feared. What happens when all the men are becoming feminine? Is this an ironic form of self fulfilling prophecy?

latest news on bpa

A coalition of health advocates, looking to seize the momentum of a new administration, will meet with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team next week in Washington, D.C., to push for a ban on bisphenol A.

The fact that Obama’s team is willing to meet now – with all the other pressures facing the incoming administration – sends a strong signal that the president-elect is open to making environmental health issues a higher priority than the Bush administration.

BPA has been linked to heart disease and diabetes in humans and has been found to interfere with chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. Animal studies have linked it to prostate and breast cancer, obesity, reproductive failures and behavioral problems, even at extremely low doses.

go HERE for more on this news.

Bisphenol-A.. it just keeps getting worse

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal sure is becoming the lead periodical for Bispenol-A research, as found in their latest watchdog report: BPA leaches from ‘safe’ products

The newspaper published scientific findings today revealing that “microwave safe” is not that.

Lab tests of 10 items’ containers found that all of the advertised “microwave safe” containers allegedly released toxic doses of the chemical known as BPA, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Saturday.

The newspaper said according to the tests it commissioned, the detected levels of the chemical were allegedly identical to levels previously blamed by scientists for causing neurological and developmental damage in lab animals.

I have written extensively about BPA, which is a chemical commonly found in plastic and canned goods. BPA is a chemical that acts on the endocrine system, which is instrumental in regulating metabolism, growth, development and puberty, tissue function, and also plays a part in determining mood. As a result, it does not act like another toxin might, in that more exposure leads to more harm. Instead, BPA mimics estrogen, which in abundance can cause cancers, birth defects (seen mostly in male genitals), and learning disabilities. Studies have also shown that while BPA can cause cancer, it can also prevent chemotherapy from being efficacious. It is a double edged sword.

The FDA allowed for the approval of this chemical in products, under pressure from the Bush Administration and its love of the chemical corporations; i.e. Dow, DuPont, etc. It has also been revealed that the FDA even allowed for those chemical companies to write the safety and efficacy reports, after extremely limited testing occurred. An independent panel of scientists has concluded that the FDA acted unethically and all approvals should be reversed and BPA taken off the market immediately.

The sad fact of all of this is that the products with the highest level of BPA are the same products targeted to infants and children. We have no idea what kind of impact this is going to have on our youth.

The point to all of this is that you really should move away from plastic, as much as possible. This means water bottles, storage containers, pre-packaged foods, and the like.

Here are some helpful links to updating your kitchen:

My favorite glass containers come from The Container Store
I highly recommend getting either a SIGG bottle or a Klean Kanteen for your water.
I also have been told that Brita is the only filtration system that is specially coated to prevent leaching into the water.

india and diabetes, part 2

Just yesterday I posted an article about the prevalence of diabetes in India, HERE.

In another article, published today, some flaws are pointed out, that I felt were worth mentioning.

The author of the article feels that key evidence about pollution’s role in Type 2 diabetes was omitted and needed to be discussed.

No where in BBC’s coverage is there even the slightest hint of a large body of scientific literature on the possible role of contamination. As long as the media and public health officials ignore this, they won’t explore ways that reducing contamination might be used to avoid diabetes in the first place.

Multiple studies now show strong epidemiological links between pollution and type 2 diabetes.

 

For example, research by Lee et al., using data from the US Centers for Disease Control, finds dramatic increases in diabetes risk associated with exposure to a mixture of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like dioxins and PCBs.

The article is very interesting, and even mentions a possible link to Bisphenol-A and diabetes. You can find it HERE.

oops, it did it again

I have written a LOT about Bisphenol-A (BPA) and the negative effects it has on our bodies. However, I never saw this coming. I just read something and I am unclear about the ramifications, but at first glance it doesn’t seem good.

Scientists are discovering that BPA has had a negative impact in lab experiements. The BPA is being released in their test tubes and altering biologic reactions, therefore giving bogus data.

But they JUST found this out.

Furthermore, plastic pipette tips – a one-use product that delivers small amounts of liquid for experiments – also leached chemicals that block biological reactions. And chemicals from plastic plates used in protein experiments actually made the MAO-B enzyme more active.

(For those who don’t know, pipette tips can be thought of as your measuring spoons in the kitchen. They are used in almost every application of science because they are the measuring device for small amounts of material… we’re talking microliters.)

These effects could distort experiments enough to make a big difference in research. “I think it’s inevitable that a lot of data that’s in the public domain will be skewed in some way,” Holt says, though he hasn’t yet identified papers with erroneous data or conclusions.

Obviously, right now, we have no idea how far this extends; how much data is inaccurate.

Really…. this is NOT good. From working in a lab, I can tell you that in order to address this issue would require a massive overhaul of the science industry. One that they are not in a position to do, currently.

This is something that will need to be watched for a while to see how deep this goes.

HERE is the article

Good news, bad news

The good news is that an independent panel of 36 scientists released a report today admonishing the FDA for their approval of the use of Bisphenol-A as safe.

The bad news… the damage may have been done.

Bisphenol A, used in baby bottles and other hard plastic, has been detected in the urine of 93% of Americans tested. Hundreds of studies have found it to cause health problems in laboratory animals, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hyperactivity, autism and reproductive failure.

I think that this entire debacle with BPA is a shame and will not be erased from my mind. The FDA is supposed to be in place as a protector of the U.S. citizenry. But, I think it was said best in the article:

“An agency that once epitomized independent, impartial expertise in the service of public health has degenerated to a disgraced stenographer for the chemical and plastics industry,” said Ken Cook, president of the organization.

You may find the entire article HERE.

sorry to beat a dead horse

I know I keep harping on Bisphenol-A, but it just really is so bad for us, and so prevalent, and such a political hot-topic that I have to keep bringing it up.

In light of a report released today by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the FDA will bow its head in shame over reports that it allowed the chemical companies to write the assessment that deemed Bisphenol-A safe.

When the government watchdog on health allows an outside source, that also just happens to make the chemical in question, to write its own report about safety and efficacy, I can assure that we have gone down a road that we need to turn back from.

The FDA was put in place to protect our citizenry. It seems that now its job is to protect corporate interest.

I think as we learn more about this chemical, the FDA is going to be embarrassed about its enthusiastic embrace.

Thank you to the investigative journalist that discovered this finding. You can find the article HERE.

I guess their name really says it all

SAFEWAY has made the deision to ban all baby bottles made with Bisphenol-A.

This really is a huge step. You see the FDA wants you to believe that Bisphenol-A is just fine. But research upon research shows that it isn’t. This is a major move where a retailer, and large corporation, has decided to take the issue into their own hands and do what is best for the consumer. I commend them for being so aggresive in their policies.

You can see the article HERE.

I have created a special Bisphenol-A category so you can easily get to all my previous posts about this chemical.

sometimes I get depressed

I mean, does this really surprise me… no. But, I would like to think more highly of people, and sometimes they just really let me down.

I have written a lot about BPA (bisphenol A), and if you still use products with it, I ask you to stop. It is bad, very bad.

And then came this news:
Soon after scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons found the first hard evidence that miniscule amounts of BPA caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice, a scientist from Dow Chemical Company showed up at the Missouri lab. He disputed the data and declared, as Vom Saal recalls, “We want you to know how distressed we are by your research.”

“It was not a subtle threat,” Vom Saal says. “It was really, really clear, and we ended up saying, threatening us is really not a good idea.”

and this addition:
Earlier this year, the industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a California legislative proposal to ban BPA in food packaging. The Chemistry Council and allied companies and industry groups hired an army of lobbyists. Tactics included an industry email to food banks charging that a BPA ban would mean the end of distributions of canned goods for the poor.

I highlighted the last statement because of the impact that truly exists in this statement. I know that Dow and the likes want to make it seem like disadvantaged people are going to suffer without canned goods… but tell me this, how are they going to suffer because of canned goods?

But, I also want to say… when a chemical company launches this kind of campaign, we know that BPA is as bad as the scientist want us to know. Protect yourselves people… we know corporations won’t.

You can go HERE for the article

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