Bisphenol A is a threat to your health. It’s all around you – and probably in you.
And BPA is most likely the cause of early puberty in young girls, plus birth defects in newborns.
Birth defects caused by exposing an unborn child to toxic chemicals was rarely discussed by doctors and hospitals before fetal alcohol syndrome was first identified. Many women employed in industry do not know all dangers associated with chemicals used at work because of the reluctance of manufacturers to explain in Material Data Safety Sheets all that is known about individual chemicals in chemical mixtures. What is known is that chemicals that alter DNA do it across the board and life cycle. Birth defects, early puberty and cancer go hand-in-hand. BPA is exactly that kind of chemical.
Endocrine disruption leads to carcinogenic, reproductive and developmental effects. In addition to early puberty, disruption of ovarian function, reduced sperm production, and reduced fertility are the outcomes. Potential developmental effects include low birth weight and birth defects.
Endocrine disruptors are found in pesticides, insecticides and industrial chemicals, such as bisphenol A found in plastic containers and can liners, which has been receiving all the bad press it deserves.
We know that two common pesticides found in polluted water, atrazine and bifenthrin, function in shellfish as estrogen does.
Environmental and biological scientists have done much to warn us about the hazards in our food supply.
In 1993 Stanford endocrinologist Dr. David Feldman was conducting research on steroid hormones in yeast cultures, such as estrogen, and he found hormones, but not where he expected them. After sterilizing empty flasks with very high heat and pressure, Feldman said he “discovered the molecules must be leaching from the plastic, because they weren’t coming from the yeast,”
The plastic flasks were made of polycarbonate, a clear sturdy plastic found in numerous containers and in the epoxies used to paint the interior of cans used for food. . Bisphenol A was contaminating his experiments. He knew that bisphenol A was a chemical relative of DES, diethylstilbestrol, a chemical known to cause cancer in the offspring of mothers treated with DES to prevent spontaneous abortions. Dr. Feldman rang the warning bell and presented his results to a major conference in 1994 in a paper entitled “Estrogens in Unexpected Places: Possible Implications for Researchers and Consumers,” later published in Environ Health Perspect. 1995 Oct;103 Suppl 7:129-3.
Nobody listened, until 2007 when Canada banned the use of bisphenol A in plastic baby bottles.
Industry did nothing about BPA for years because there were no penalties and no incentives to use alternatives, and as Professor Feldman notes” scientists can only say so much.”
From the first reported synthesis of BPA in 1936 it has been known as an estrogen. Dodds, E.C., Lawson W. “Synthetic Oestrogenic Agents Without the Phenanthrene Nucleus,” Nature 137:996 (1936). Today BPA is associated with causing damage in reproduction and is a suspect in a myriad of other problems, including breast cancer, diabetes, testicular cancer and more, as shown in tests on laboratory animals.
Bishpenol A can be found in baby bottles, water bottles and the white linings of canned foods. It was thought to be just fine, but we are eating it. BPA has been found in 93 percent of Americans who were tested for it.
Industry, as expected, claims that it is safe. But it’s not acceptable if it leaches into humans. The Environmental Working Group found that bisphenol A lines the cans of baby formula, including Nestl
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