Plastics News Alert
Are chemicals really leaching out of your
plastic containers?
Are these chemicals really dangerous to you?
How do you play it safe?
 This Newsletter is my way of sharing information helpful to keeping you and your family safe, informed, empowered or entertained. John Bisnar |
- In the past several years, we've all been hearing a lot that it's not safe to heat plastic containers in the microwave or freeze plastic water bottles, because heating or freezing these items can cause chemicals in the plastic to leach out.
- Several new studies and a concerted effort by the Environmental Protection Agency are starting to provide some answers regarding exactly what danger those chemicals pose to you and me.
Here's what they know for sure:
- Virtually all plastics leach trace amounts of chemicals.
- Heating plastics in the microwave and washing containers in detergent causes plastic to break down faster and thus speeds up the leaching process.
- The chemical compounds, which mimic hormones, which leach from various plastics aren't carcinogenic, which means they do not cause cancer.
- However, these chemical compounds have been proven to harm the reproductive systems of various fish and wildlife and to cause chromosomal damage in rodents.
- Freezing plastic water bottles does not seem to create a problem.
Here is what nobody knows for sure:
- What nobody knows for sure is whether even the tiny amounts of these chemicals - phthalates (pronounced "thalates") and bisphenol- A, (called BPA for short) - that leach out of plastic items, some cosmetics, and the lining of almost every can of food have similar effects on humans.
- "We have widespread exposure to bisphenol-A. It's in practically everything," said Theo Colborn, a former senior scientist at the World Wildlife Fund who wrote a cautionary book Our Stolen Future on these chemicals, otherwise known as endocrine disrupters.
- Colborn's contention is true of phthalates as well. In 1999, government researchers found phthalates in the blood or urine of every one of 1,000 adults tested. In the summer of 2004, scientists from the Silent Spring Institute of Newton, Mass., and Harvard University's School of Public Health found phthalates in the dust and air of every one of the 120 houses they tested.
- Once they enter a body, most endocrine disrupters stay put, mostly in fatty tissues. But researchers don't know how much has to build up to cause damage. In 2002, the World Health Organization reported that analysis of available human data on endocrine disrupters "has so far failed to provide firm evidence of direct causal associations between low-level exposure and adverse health outcomes."
It's been easier to prove in animals. The latest of many reports, released in 2004 by the Population Council, found that one of the most commonly used endocrine disrupters wreaked havoc on young male rats' reproductive systems after consistent low-level exposure.
These findings have convinced scientists such as Colborn that endocrine disrupters may be one of many factors to blame for the increasing human incidence of reproductive abnormalities such as low sperm count and early-onset puberty. Such suspicions have led to the warnings we've heard about heating food in plastic.
The European Union and several Asian countries have gone a step further and banned the use of phthalates in cosmetics, infant teethers, toys, and pacifiers.
However, a Senior Technical Adviser of the Environmental Protection Agency's Endocrine Disruptors Research Program said these actions were based on fear rather than science.
"We do believe these [harmful] effects can be caused in humans," the Advisor said, "but we've been toying with how to make that connection using epidemiological studies, because we can't experiment on humans. We're hoping some studies we've recently designed will give us some answers."
The American Plastics Council and the American Chemical Council point to several independent studies showing that levels of BPA leaching from the lining of food and beverage cans and from rigid plastics such as baby bottles and microwave containers are many times lower than the levels demonstrated to be safe. Ditto for the levels of phthalates babies are exposed to from chewing on pliable plastic toys, they say. However, many major retailers are not seemingly convinced.
Kmart, Sears, Target, Toys "R" Us, and Wal-Mart stopped selling heavily mouthed baby products made with phthalates, and several major toy makers stopped using them in response to a 1998 Consumer Product Safety Commission request.
This precautionary measure was followed up by research, which concluded in September 2002, that the most common phthalate in soft plastic toys is "not likely to present a health hazard to children" who chew on them. In February of 2004, the safety commission denied a petition from the National Environmental Trust calling for a ban on PVC plastic products for children under 5.
Until the EPA starts providing definitive answers - hopefully in the very near future- you can play it safe by following these guidelines, from the World Wildlife Fund and other sources, when possible:
- Use glass or ceramic containers instead of plastic wrap for storage, especially of fatty foods such as cheese, meat, and butter.
- Alternatively, choose a plastic wrap made without phthalates, such as Glad or Saran.
- Microwave food in ceramic or glass instead of plastic. (Containers labeled "microwave safe" are OK for a few uses, but will break down over time.) Remove plastic packaging before cooking; replace with parchment or waxed paper.
- Try to prevent children from chewing on plastics by giving them natural fiber toys.
- Choose goods with minimal plastic packaging.
- Replace plastic baby bottles often. "When [these] bottles start to turn cloudy, they are leaching," cautions Dr. Patricia A. Hunt, author of a Case Western Reserve University study on BPA.
- Don't store canned food or beverages in the can.
- Wash new clothes. Some fabric finishes contain endocrine disrupters.
For More Information:
On the book Our Stolen Future see:
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/aboutOSF.htm
About Dr. Theo Colborn see:
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/Authors/authors.htm
On the World Wildlife Fund-US and to sign up for their E-newsletter
http://www.wwfus.org/toxics/
For the latest research on endocrine disrupters see:
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/New/newstuff.htm
Mr. S.M. of Santa Ana, California
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--John Bisnar, Bisnar and Chase, LLP
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