New Study Links Plastics To Heart Disease, Diabetes 266
fprintf writes "There have been a number of studies over the years, some of which have been debunked, linking plastics with human disease. Now British researchers have released a study again linking common plastics used in food/liquid storage with human disease."
Print version (Score:0, Informative)
Snopes article is offtopic and strawman (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp [snopes.com]
Didn't you realize that the snopes article in the summary talks about a completely different chemical?
tag: badsummary
Maybe you should RTFA then. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:BPA can cause more than that. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:BPA can cause more than that. (Score:5, Informative)
Straight from their own front page:
Never said he did. I was merely pointing out a similarity between Natural News and Kevin Trudeau both claiming that "natural" remedies are more effective than man-made medicines (which are also natural).
Just a few. Like this one [naturalcures.com], this one [amazon.com] and this one [google.com]. So yes, I have proof he is providing miracle cures. That and his infomercials on which he peddles his book which has in its title, "Includes The Natural Cures For Over 50 Specific Diseases".
I never said I didn't like the source. Some "natural" items can be very beneficial to certain people. However, claiming that ONLY "natural" products, such as supplements which are unregulated and don't have to detail what they actually contain or what effect they may have on people, is disingenuous and potentially harmful.
As far as proving them wrong, I don't need to prove them wrong because studies over the years have proven them wrong. Here is one article [cnn.com] which discusses "natural" remedies, and this one [iula.org] which talks about Lycopene.
So yes, I was very intelligent to point out the bias of Natural News so people are aware of their bias. Whether people heed the warning is up to them but they have been warned.
Re:I haven't even rtfa, but here goes (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA
"At least from this study, we cannot draw any conclusion that bisphenol A causes any health effect. "
and:
"The researchers also cautioned that these findings are just the first step and more work is needed to determine if the chemical actually is a direct cause of disease."
Science also says it doesn't enter the bloodstream (Score:2, Informative)
A Chemical Research in Toxicology article here [acs.org] stated that rats and humans handle bisphenol A in very different ways so I'd be careful drawing lines between rat and human results.
"Enterohepatic circulation of bisphenol A glucuronide in rats results in a slow rate of excretion, whereas bisphenol A is rapidly conjugated and excreted by humans due to the absence of enterohepatic circulation. The efficient glucuronidation of bisphenol A and the rapid excretion of the formed glucuronide result in a low body burden of the estrogenic bisphenol A in humans following oral absorption of low doses."
The article actually says humans basically excreet all of the material resulting in extremely low (near undetectable) levels of biphenol A or its metabolite. They fed humans 5mg of isotopicaly labeled bisphenol A and studied what the body does with it - there is no way any plastic bottle or cup is gonna deliver 5mg of bisphenol A to you via drinking or eating its contents. Bisphenol a is an anti-oxidant used in ppm levels in the plastic to keep it from yellowing over time. So IMHO the jury is still out - BUT my kids use BPA free plastics :) With kids why take the chance?
Re:How was this post modded troll? (Score:3, Informative)
Why should I be modded down for other peoples laziness to do a simple google search to see if the the article is correct?
Just because you or others don't like the source or hate the fact that a source tries to make money to continue their profession doesn't mean the source is biased. I don't see anyone bashing CNN for having advertisements on their websites.
Since you were too lazy to type "BPA NIH" into google I'll do it for you.
http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/chemicals/bisphenol/draftBPA_MtgSumm080807.pdf [nih.gov]
The Expert Panel expressed some concern that exposure to Bisphenol A causes neural and behavioral
effects.
The Expert Panel had expressed minimal concern that exposure to Bisphenol A potentially causes
accelerations in puberty.
Re:Relative risk (Score:1, Informative)
For the most part we aren't. The article says that BPA is use in making polycarbonate. The recycling number for polycarbonate is 7, which is "other". The 7 code isn't very common and many of them aren't polycarbonate. The places I can think of seeing polycarbonate is reusable sports, baby bottles, and those plastic 5 gallon water cooler bottles.
Re:Plastics, m'boy! (Score:3, Informative)
that wooshing sound you just heard is sarcasm going over your head.
Damn, I thought it was the giant sucking sound [wikipedia.org] of American jobs rushing overseas. Phew, what a relief that it was only sarcasm.
Re:Relative risk (Score:2, Informative)
"Using glass jars sure caused a lot of food poisoning!"
Actually, yes it did (and does). Improperly sealing glass containers used to cause many deaths from botulism, and is still a risk in home canning.
Re:Relative risk (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Relative risk (Score:3, Informative)
Using glass jars sure caused a lot of food poisoning!
No, but crystal glas can cause other diseases [thenibble.com].
After centuries of enjoying beautiful lead crystal at table, it has recently come under the scrutiny of health authorities, who were testing paint and other products as possible sources of lead poisoning. Preliminary tests have shown that, over time, significant amounts of lead can migrate from lead crystal containers into liquids stored in them.
* One research team measured the amount of lead migration in Port wine that was stored in lead crystal decanters. After two days, lead levels were 89 micrograms; after four months, lead levels were between 2,000 and 5,000 micrograms.
* White wine doubled its lead content within an hour of storage, and tripled it within four hours.
* Brandy stored in lead crystal for five years had lead levels around 20,000 micrograms. * Any liquid can leach lead from crystal just as effectively as wine and other alcoholic beverages.
To put these numbers into perspective, the EPAâ(TM)s lead standard for drinking water is 50 micrograms per liter.
Re:I haven't even rtfa, but here goes (Score:1, Informative)
I thinks that's why they want more studies, they have shown the correlation but not the causation yet. One plausible explanation is that it's the food found in these plastic containers that is increasing the risk of disease. If the food that is typically packaged in these plastics is worse for you than food that is not typically packaged in these plastics, then the correlation with urine BPA levels would be just that, a correlation not a causation. Changing the container to be made of triton plastic, or whatever, would not change the fact that it's the food that is causing the increased risk of disease.
Re:I did RTFA and still can't tell much (Score:3, Informative)
Actually they corrolated the results to studies done in animals. So humans with the highest levels of BPA, had the highest levels of heart disease and Diabetes, and this corrolated with toxicity studies done on animals.
So what they are saying is that the toxicity studies done on animals are relevant to the human population. This is a study that is ALWAYS done whenever testing any product/medication/etc which has shown harm in animal testing.