"We're 15 years too late": Endocrine-disrupting plastic additive BPA is still in everything

[marmar]

(Salon) Shortly before 2021 came to a close, a little-known agency proposed some new safety standards that accidentally triggered serious questions about human health in the age of plastics.

More specifically, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that a plastic additive called bisphenol A (BPA) needs to be dramatically reduced in our environment — that is, people should have their exposure to the chemical limited to no more than 0.018 nanograms per pound of body weight per day. This would decrease one's interactions with the pollutant by a factor of 100,000 from what they currently are.

In case you have been living in a part of the world that is untouched by plastic — which, it turns out, doesn't exist — BPA is everywhere, in all kinds of different plastics. Aside from some laws limiting its use in infant formula packaging and baby bottles, companies use it to make water bottles and food can liners, leftover containers and dishware, eyeglass lenses and household electronics, and even commercial receipts that come out of thermal printers. BPAs are in microplastics, or tiny plastic particles that you consume but rarely see because they are so small. And BPA is so ubiquitous that it gets inside our bodies before we are even born: one 2014 study detected the chemical in 75% of nursing mothers' breast milk, and in the urine of 93% of their infants.

This wouldn't be an issue if there weren't concerns about BPA affecting human health. (More on that later). Despite its ubiquity in the human body, and despite growing public awareness about plastic pollution, there are almost no meaningful regulations on BPA in the United States.

Many companies claim to be reducing their use of BPA, as observed in the recent trend of labeling cans and plastic bottles "BPA-free." Unfortunately, many of the replacements for BPA are equally bad, and some cause genetic defects, as Science previously reported. ...............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/16/bpa-plastics-harmful/

[samplegirl]

1. Yes and look at

All the bottled water.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Kickin' with disgust

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. This is why I only drink rain water and grain alcohol.

[yardwork]

9. This seems like a wise decision!

[bedazzled]

10. Protect your precious bodily essences

I can't watch that movie since cheetolini

[yardwork]

12. Peter Sellers was a genius.

[pecosbob]

19. Sterling Hayden was an OSS officer and a bona fide war hero...world sailor as well

A man to look up to...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. Wow! I never knew that about him.

Caught up in the Red Scare.


Also busted for hashish in the Toronto airport. Sounds like he would have been fun to hang around with.

[pandr32]

4. We must deal with our plastic nightmare

I am old enough to remember very little of it in the household. Things sure are different now.

[gab13by13]

6. They still make glass bottles,

the flimsier the water bottle the more the chemicals will leach out.

[pandr32]

8. Some are so flimsy they are barely usable

Someone handed me one once and I struggled to hold and drink from it.

[bedazzled]

11. It is impossible to buy some things without it

I mean, strawberries? Cookies? It is heartbreaking

[pandr32]

13. I agree

It has snuck into everything we use/have. Even baby clothes and blankets. We must change our ways.

[bedazzled]

16. It is a lot of work to avoid it

I, too, remember cardboard and glass packaging. What a mess we have made

[calimary]

5. I guess it's better that we know.

Sheeesh.

“Better living through chemicals.”

[Mossfern]

7. I was pondering about all the plastic waste just a couple of days ago

Last edited Sun Jan 16, 2022, 03:19 PM - Edit history (1)

I grew up in a time when there were very few plastics. I remember being hugely jealous of my best friend Michelle because she had plastic toys. When my kids were young (they're 33 to 43 years old now) , at the supermarket - I let them know that if they wanted anything special that it couldn't come in a plastic container. They used to hunt down glass bottled stuff with me.

Apart from shipping weight and safety issues about breakage, why can't we go back to non plastic packaging? I'm sure that all that plastic going to recycling centers is not being recycled. Paper is a renewable resource, glass can be reused or recycled - same with many metals. How were people able to survive without plastic for so many centuries?

[NickB79]

14. Testosterone levels and sperm counts have been declining globally for decades

Precisely because of chemicals like these.

We're going down a bad path here for the future of our species.

[hunter]

17. Declining testosterone levels and sperm counts in humans is probably a good thing.

In wildlife, it's a bad thing.

Yeah, I'm that kind of radical environmentalist.

I'm also a humanist. I worry most about chemicals that adversely affect human intelligence and empathy, teratogens, and chemicals that cause serious illnesses such as cancer.

If BPAs or other environmental toxins turned some people into Trump supporters that would be a bad thing, even if in the long term it inhibited their ability to reproduce.

[NickB79]

18. We're already seeing intersex fish in contaminated rivers

Ugh

[GoCubsGo]

15. I didn't realize how bad it was until I was looking into a new coffee maker.

A lot of them are made of plastic, especially the less-expensive ones. Not every manufacturer is using BPA-free plastic. It really narrows down the choices.