'Inherently toxic' chemical faces its future

The Globe and Mail ^ | 07/04/07 | MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

[amchugh]

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.

At the heart of the intense debate over bisphenol A is that it challenges the main tenet of modern toxicology, the idea that the dose makes the poison, a principle credited to the 15th-century Swiss alchemist Theophrastus Paracelsus.

[amchugh]

I haven't reviewed the science on this yet, but I expect this will be the next big thing in consumer activism and product litigation regardless of validity.

[muawiyah]

You'll find lurking in the background our old friends with their theory of "molecular memory" (SEE: homoeopathic medicine).

The basic idea here is that if the concentration of some chemical gets smaller and smaller, it can still have an effect on a biological system since the water in which it was formerly dissolved will "remember" the shape. This way you can poison disease while leaving the human being unharmed with the poison.

It's generally considered BS.

[D Rider]

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.

If true, it explains alot.

[Red Badger]

is known to act like a synthetic female sex hormone.....

Now we know.......

[TheBattman]

A simple Google search turns up a library of info - both from some reputable sources and from the far other extreme. One thing in common - there are some negative proven properties...

See for yourself... Personally - it sounds like something I would just as soon not be exposed to. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible unless you grow/kill your own food - and don’t use any sort of plastic products for storage...

[Salamander]

Thanks.

[now *I* don’t have to be the one to say that].....:)

[amchugh]

I’ve made a substantial effort in the past to eliminate plastic products from my kitchen, if only because I hate the taste. If this is a serious concern, I would at least refrain from heating foods in plastic containers. I’m not too worried about it though (yet).

[caveat emptor]

ping for later

[KarlInOhio]

Mandrake, have you never wondered why I only store my rain water and pure grain alcohol in glass containers?

[LucyT]

Studies on Endocrine Disruptors

http://ourstolenfuture.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breast Cancer Link?

Birth Defects Chemical Found in Canned Foods; U.S. Review Agency Is Run by Industry Consultant

http://ewg.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leaching of bisphenol A (BPA) from polycarbonate plastic to water containing amino acids and its degradation by radical oxygen species.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15041290&dopt=Citation

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for the links, Lucy. We don’t like the taste of plastic on anything, and use almost exclusively glass containers.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[AZLiberty]

I had a similar thought about homeopathy. If the homeopathic use of microconcentrations of chemicals actually works, then it could conceivably have a dark side, where microconcentrations of other chemical do bad things.

[D-fendr]

If the homeopathic use of microconcentrations of chemicals…

Think micromicromicromicromicropicomicromicro concentrations. In other words, there's nothing left of the chemical. The 'theory' is that the water 'remembers' it used to be there.

…actually works

Only for the seller. For the cost of one ounce of chemical, he can make enough water, er, homeopathic medicine, for the whole planet.

[amchugh]

I don’t think from reading the article that they are talking about concentrations that small, but quick dig turned up this article which stated observable results at .23 parts per trillion.
http://www.mercola.com/blog/2005/dec/6/how_food_containers_can_harm_your_babys_brain

[D-fendr]

That’s Mercola.. :)

But I was referring specifically to homeopathic. This really is not the case with the article. They’re referring to a different effect of low dosage on hormonal reaction.

It’s still a dose, just a low dose has an unusual effect on this system.

Homeopathy is equivalent to no dose, the water has a ‘hole’ where the dose was. That’s the idea anyway. Placebo effect if any IMHO.

thanks for your reply..

[MHGinTN]

Am I remembering correctly that a young girl’s science project to discover whether chemicals leech from plastic food containers actually got this investigation started in earnest?

[Ben Chad]

synthetic female sex hormone.

Put it in the water supplies of the middle east.

[Northern Alliance]

You'll find lurking in the background our old friends with their theory of "molecular memory" (SEE: homoeopathic medicine).

Is that just a vague suspicion or do you have some facts to back it up? In this particular article, it looks to me like they are talking about measurable amounts, which is not the case with homeopathics.

I don't know if the studies were disputed or not, but Bisphenol A was shown to be oestrogenic in 1938 Bisphenol A

[muawiyah]

It's worth reading a couple of dozen of the more popular websites carrying the story. There's definitely a crowd of homeopathic types out there cheering on the idea that there are "irreducibly active" chemicals with biologic effects.

Surprising how they've held on so long.