Think Plastic Bottles Are Toxic? Try Canned Food
Here at disinformation we long ago dispensed with plastic water bottles in the wake of our film Tapped, but now it seems that canned foods are way more dangerous in terms of their delivery of BPAs into our bodies. Via CBS News:
Talk about stirring up controversy. A new study shows that the urine of people who consume canned soup can contain surprisingly high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone-disrupting compound linked to health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
People who consumed one serving of canned soup a day for five days had a more than 1,000 percent increase in urinary BPA over people who consumed fresh soup for five days, the study showed.
“We’ve known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase…
Plastic Bottles Can Ruin Your Sperm
For all you macho men who couldn’t give a crap about your carbon footprint, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and other problems associated with bottled water, maybe this will help you get off the bottle: BPAs, one of the toxins in plastic bottled water, can seriously lower your sperm count. Oh, and also BPAs can cause erectile dysfunction. Still want to drink from plastic bottles? From CNN:
Exposure to bisphenol-A (BPA), a controversial chemical found in hard, clear plastics, is thought to increase the risk of birth defects, early puberty, obesity, brain damage, and some forms of cancer.
Add another potential problem to the list: A new study of Chinese factory workers suggests that very high levels of BPA exposure may decrease sperm count and contribute to other sperm-related problems in men.
The findings aren’t surprising. BPA—which can be found in some baby bottles and water bottles, as well the linings of food…
Canada Declares BPA Toxic. Is the U.S. Next?
3D chemical structure of bisphenol A. Author: Edgar181
Bryan Walsh writing for the Ecocentric Blog at Time Magazine:
It’s used almost everywhere. It’s in almost all of us. It does weird things to rodents and it may be doing weird things to us—but it’s tough to be certain. Bisphenol-A (BPA) has become a litmus test for how people view environmental health and the risks of common household chemicals—as I wrote in a long story for TIME earlier this year. The chemical has countless industrial uses, most often in the epoxy liner of cans and in plastic bottles. But BPA is also an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it has the capacity to mess with our hormones and potentially impact health—especially in developing fetuses—even at relatively low doses. (Because they can mimic hormones—which cause enormous changes in our bodies even at relatively low amounts—the dose-response relationship used to evaluate traditional toxins like lead may not work with…
An Overlooked Source Of Hormone-Altering Bisphenol-A? Paper Receipts
When you’re handed a receipt at a drug store or supermarket, you might be accepting more than you wish: scientists have announced that about half of paper receipts from stores and ATMs are coated with bisphenol-A, a chemical which affects the endocrine system, contributing to reproductive problems and cancer. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able buy groceries without risking an involuntary sex change? The Washington Post reports:
The Environmental Working Group found BPA on 40 percent of the receipts it collected from supermarkets, automated teller machines, gas stations and chain stores. In some cases, the total amount of BPA on the receipt was 1,000 times the amount found in the epoxy lining of a can of food, another controversial use of the chemical.
Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with the environmental group, says BPA’s prevalence on receipts could help explain why the chemical can be detected in the urine of an estimated…
Outlawing Bottled Water
For those paying attention, calls for removal of plastics from our food and water and elsewhere in our household and workplace environments have been getting a whole lot louder recently and will receive worldwide attention during World Water Week in September. For those who liked Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff, she’s made a new film, The Story of Bottled Water:
The message is starting to go mainstream. TIME Magazine recently highlighted “The Perils of Plastic.” Here’s what they have to say about Bisphenol A (BPA), the type of plastic used to bottle water:
What It Is: A chemical used in plastic production
Found In: Water bottles, baby bottles, plastic wraps, food packaging
Health Hazards: The government’s National Toxicology Program has concluded that there is some concern about brain and behavioral effects…
