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Author
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Topic: Have you had your daily dose of Bisphenol A? Probably....
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obscurantist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8238
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posted 07 April 2007 01:41 PM
Bisphenol A is ingested by practically everyone in Canada who eats canned foods or drinks from a can or hard plastic water bottles. Now a controversy is raging over the safety of widespread public exposure to the chemical, which is known to act like a synthetic female sex hormone. quote:
...bisphenol A has recently emerged as one extremely odd compound, perhaps the most unusual in widespread use. Research has found that it seems to turn modern toxicology on its head by being more dangerous at very low exposures than at high ones, a finding that is focusing attention on the possible health repercussions of the relatively small amounts leaching from consumer products.Bisphenol A also has a bizarre pattern of research results, with the funding source of a study the best predictor of whether scientists find it harmful or safe. All major industry studies into bisphenol A's safety, and they number about a dozen, haven't found anything worrisome in low-dose exposures. However, about 90 per cent of studies by independent researchers over the past decade, numbering about 150, have found adverse effects, ranging from enlarged prostates to abnormal breast tissue growth. Bisphenol A has been used in increasing amounts since the 1950s in food and beverage containers because it doesn't impart a plastic-like taste, although traces leach out. ...
From: an unweeded garden | Registered: Feb 2005
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M. Spector
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8273
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posted 07 April 2007 02:32 PM
Previous Globe articles:Controversial chemical found in canned foods, U.S. tests show March 7/07: quote:
High levels of bisphenol A, a compound that mimics the hormone estrogen and is used to make many types of plastic products, have been found to be leaching out of tin cans and baby bottles in separate tests conducted by two U.S. environmental groups.The largest amounts were found by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group in brand-name canned goods purchased at U.S. supermarkets, with the most elevated readings detected in chicken noodle soup and mixed vegetables. The highest U.S. level found was about four times above top readings detected in canned food in Europe.
Breast cancer risk "starts in the womb"December 6/06:
quote:
For many women, the misfortune of having breast cancer is one of the biggest enigmas of their lives. But the study suggests one possible cause for the disease may be exposure during fetal life to the compound, known as bisphenol A. The new research has found that the chemical, even at vanishingly small doses, is able to cause precancerous and cancerous lesions in the offspring of pregnant laboratory rats injected with small amounts of it during gestation. If the results also apply to humans, it would mean some women may be at risk of breast cancer because their mothers were exposed while pregnant to the chemical, used in increasing amounts in consumer products since the 1960s.One of the researchers who conducted the study said early life exposures to the chemical could be a critical factor in understanding why so many women without known risk factors are developing the cancer.
Chemical used in water bottles linked to prostate cancerJune 9/06:
quote:
Researchers in the U.S. have linked exposures to trace amounts of bisphenol A, a widely used chemical that leaks from many plastics products, to prostate cancer in animal experiments.The discovery is considered the first direct scientific evidence connecting prostate cancer to bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical used to make the polycarbonate for hard plastic water bottles and baby bottles, and the dental sealants used on children's teeth, among its many consumer uses. The dose causing the adverse effect, given to newborn rats, was set by the researchers to be similar to the amounts commonly found in the blood of people in Western countries exposed to polycarbonate plastic and other BPA-containing consumer items. This dose was 60 per cent below levels Health Canada considers safe, and suggests that current regulatory standards may be too lax.
Are plastic products coated in peril?May 31/06:
quote:
Because BPA has a shape similar to the estrogen hormone, it is able to fit into the same receptors that estrogen uses to signal cells to turn biological functions on and off. For Dr. vom Saal, the idea that the entire population is being given a dose of a synthetic estrogen through plastic "is supported by hundreds of published articles" and is "an extremely critical public health issue."At the heart of safety disputes over BPA are the results of the low-dose experiments with animals and test-tube cell cultures.
[ 07 April 2007: Message edited by: M. Spector ]
From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005
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