New mothers leading fight against toxins in plastic containers
by ken winston caine
USA Today reports that new parents are leading the fight against our widespread exposure to health-robbing, mutagenic toxins in plastics.
In one of the more comprehensive and serious examinations of the health threats from plastics and plastic food containers, USA Today reporters Elizabeth Weise and Liz Szabo, note in the copyright story, among other things:
• “Parents, activists and many scientists are concerned that if a baby drinks from a bottle made with [plastic chemicals] bisphenol A [BPA] or gums a toy made with phthalates, he or she could suffer serious, even permanent, harm.”
• “In December, the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that one form of phthalate, called di(2-ethylhexyl), or DEHP, used in intravenous tubing, catheters and other plastic medical equipment, could pose a risk to the proper development of baby boys’ reproductive tracts.”
• “Nearly every American has been exposed. A 2000 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found phthalates in the urine of 75% of people tested. CDC research has shown that 95% of Americans have detectable levels of bisphenol A in their bodies.”
• A recent study found “demasculating” birth defects in newborn boys whose mothers had been exposed to a level of phtalates that an estimated 25% of American women are exposed to.
• Rodent studies link casual exposure to chemicals found in plastics to increased potential for earlier sexual maturation of girls, “breast cancer, lowered sperm production, possible links to prostate cancer and increased insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.”
• Requisite denials from chemical industry spokespeople that plastics pose any health dangers.
• Due to the careful and slow progress of the scientific process, any meaningful federal regulations are probably at least a decade away.
Well worth the read. See the article here.
Earlier related posts:
• Does this bottled water make me look fat?
• More on how plastic bottles can cause cancer — and even reproductive disorders
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