Cancer Up 70 Percent From Plastic Bottles, Epoxy, and PVC

[Guest LAW_*]

OAKLAND, Ca. – Seventy-seven Harvard student volunteers experienced a nearly 70 percent increase in urinary levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a plastics component and synthetic estrogen linked to cancer, reproductive system damage and other serious conditions, after drinking cold beverages from BPA-laden polycarbonate bottles for just one week, according to researchers from Harvard University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

The ground-breaking Harvard/CDC study, led by Karin B. Michels, a Harvard professor of epidemiology, and published May 12 in the online version of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives poses serious implications for the impact of BPA exposure on infants fed with polycarbonate bottles.

 

"These astonishing results should be a clarion call to lawmakers and public health officials that babies are being exposed to BPA, and at levels that could likely have an impact on their development,” said Renee Sharp, Director of Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) California office. “The adults in this study were willing participants

who understood the risk of exposure, but babies are unwitting victims of the silent but serious threat this hormone- disrupting chemical

poses to their health.”

 

The Harvard/CDC study buttresses a March 2007 study by EWG that documented that BPA-based epoxy can linings had contaminated more than half the canned foods, beverages and canned liquid infant formula randomly purchased at supermarkets around the country. Since many of the foods tested, such as liquid infant formula, cannedsoup and SpagettiOs, are marketed for babies and toddlers, babies drinking from BPA-plastic bottles and sippy cups and eating canned food could receive significant doses of the chemical, shown in laboratory studies to cause serious damage to brain and reproductive systems of test animals. As well, the chemical has been associated with cardiovascular damage, diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.

 

In the absence of any U.S. regulation on BPA contamination of food, EWG has published an online guide to baby-safe bottles and formula.

 

The Harvard/CDC study comes on the heels of Minnesota’s statewide prohibition of BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and other food containers for children 3 and under. Suffolk County, New York, has also banned BPA in such items, lawmakers in California and Connecticut are considering similar proposals, and the City Council in Chicago

just today voted to ban the sale of any baby bottle or sippy cup containing the chemical.

 

EWG supports State Senator Fran Pavley’s (D) measure to ban BPA in California.

 

At the federal level, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) have introduced legislation that would restrict the use of BPA in food and beverage containers.

 

“If the legislation to protect California’s youngest from further exposure to BPA is defeated, those elected officials responsible for its demise should be held to account for protecting the profits of the chemical industry instead of children’s health,” added Sharp.

 

In March, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that 6 major companies -- Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown, Playtex and Evenflow -- had volunteered to stop using BPA-based plastic in baby bottles made for the U.S. market.

 

Several major retailers, including Wal-Mart and Toys R’ Us, have announced they would stop selling baby bottles made with BPA. The water bottle manufacturer Nalgene and several of the nation’s largest baby bottle makers are phasing BPA out of their products. The petro- chemical giant Sunoco has promised that it would no longer allow any of the BPA it makes to be used in items designed for children 3 and under.

 

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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC with offices in Oakland, CA. and Des Moines, IA that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment.

 

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[Guest Mary Lynne Vellinga]

(Sacramento)--Legislation by California State Senator Fran Pavley (D-23) to remove the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula cans narrowly passed the Senate Health Committee Wednesday despite heavy lobbying by the chemical industry.

 

SB 797, which bans detectable levels of BPA in food and beverage containers specifically designed for children three years or younger, garnered the minimum six votes needed for passage. At least a dozen chemical industry executives and lobbyists had been working the hallways in recent days. They erroneously told legislators that they could not make BPA-free food containers, and even suggested that passage of the bill would cause a liquid formula shortage.

 

To counter their claims, Senator Pavley displayed to the committee a broad array of baby food and formula containers now being marketed to consumers as “BPA free” by the same companies insisting they could not comply with SB 797.These included liquid formula containers from Similac and Nestle.

 

Throughout the hearing, lobbyists representing such companies as Abbott Laboratories, producer of Similac formula; and Nestle, which owns Gerber, asserted that the products they currently market as BPA free would not be able to meet the standard of less than 0.1 parts per billion set forth in Senator Pavley’s bill.

 

Upon questioning by Senator Mark Leno, the lobbyists conceded that the baby food and formula industry uses no uniform standard to define “BPA free,” and some of the food and formula containers now being sold as such may nonetheless be laced with some of the synthetic hormone.

 

Despite an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that BPA is not safe for human consumption, and particularly for young, developing systems, representatives of the chemical industry continued to question the science in Wednesday’s hearing.

 

A groundswell of outrage from consumers has led to proposals in 20 other states to restrict use of BPA. The Connecticut House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill similar to Senator Pavley’s. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced legislation that would ban the use of BPA in all food and beverage containers, not just those designed for young children.

 

Originally created as an artificial estrogen for women in the 1930s, BPA is widely used in shatter-resistant plastic bottles and the linings of cans. It’s an endocrine disruptor that acts like a hormone, and its repeated ingestion is the equivalent of giving low-level doses of birth control pills to babies on a daily basis. The chemical leaches from food and beverage containers into food and drink.

 

Well over 100 independent academic and government peer-reviewed studies have linked BPA to a host of problems, including brain and developmental damage, breast and prostrate cancer, early puberty, obesity, infertility, miscarriage and hyperactivity.

 

“Plastic is not one of the six major food groups for a reason,” Senator Pavley told the committee.

 

Despite the chemical industry’s insistence that it cannot function without BPA, some major companies have announced they are phasing it out. This includes six of the nation’s leading baby bottle manufacturers. The chemical manufacturer Sunoco has announced it will no longer sell BPA to companies that make food and water containers for children ages three and younger.

 

SB 797 is co-authored by Sen. Carol Liu and is sponsored by the Environmental Working Group.

[Guest DC Government Worker]

Bisphenol A. - Oral RfD References

 

NTP (National Toxicology Program). 1982. NTP Technical Report on the carcinogenesis bioassay of bisphenol A (CAS No. 80-05-7) in F344 rats and B6C3F1 mice (feed study). NTP-80-35. NIH Publ. No. 82-1771.

 

NTP (National Toxicology Program). 1985a. Teratologic evaluation of bisphenol A (CAS No. 80-05-7) administered to CD-1 mice on gestational days 6-15. NTP, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC.

 

NTP (National Toxicology Program). 1986a. Teratologic evaluation of bisphenol A (CAS No. 80-05-7) administered to CD® rats on gestational days 6-15. NTP, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC.

 

U.S. EPA. 1984a. Ninety-day oral toxicity study in dogs. Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Fiche No. OTS0509954.

 

U.S. EPA. 1984b. Reproduction and ninety-day oral toxicity study in rats. Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Fiche No. OTS0509954.

 

U.S. EPA. 1984c. Fourteen-day range finding study in rats. Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Fiche No. OTS0509954.

 

U.S. EPA. 1987. Health and Environmental Effects Document on Bisphenol A. Prepared by the Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office, Cincinnati, OH for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Washington, DC.

[Guest Lesley]

Bisphenol A, has been suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s. Concerns about bisphenol A use in consumer products has regularly reported in the news media. In 2008 several governments issued reports questioning its safety, and some retailers removed products made from it off their shelves.

 

Bisphenol A is used primarily to make plastics, and products containing bisphenol A-based plastics have been in commerce for more than 50 years. It is used in the synthesis of polyesters, polysulfones, and polyether ketones, as an antioxidant in some plasticizers, and as a polymerization inhibitor in PVC.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical, used to manufacture polycarbonate and numerous plastic articles. However, recent studies have shown that it can leach out of certain products, including the plastic lining of cans used for food, polycarbonate babies’ bottles and tableware, and white dental fillings and sealants.

 

Here is some recent posts for people to get a complete extent of the problem.

 

How Safe is Our Drinking Water?

 

Drugs Found In Our Drinking Waters

 

Mercury in Our Drinking Water

Edited May 20, 2009 by Luke_Wilbur