Obesity and Plastic–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids
The Boston Globe recently published an article that caught my eye. “Is plastic making us fat?” certainly grabbed my attention. What once what categorized as being a non-issue of over reactive parents seems to be making its way into many mainstream media outlets. Here is a quote from the article about some recent animal studies:
“A recent US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that about 93 percent of the US population had bisphenol A, a chemical that can be found in canned goods and in hard, clear plastic items such as baby bottles and hiking containers, in their body. A study at the University of Missouri-Columbia showed that mice fed bisphenol A during early development - at lower amounts than what would have resulted in the levels found in most people in the CDC study - become markedly more obese as adults than those that weren’t fed the chemical. Tufts University scientists observed similar phenomenon in rats. Exposure “can be critical on the front end of one’s life where the rest of your life’s physiology is being programmed,” said Frederick vom Saal, a biological scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia who studies bisphenol A.”
And if you’ve been reading this blog, and following environmental health news for kids, you’ve probably seen ways to avoid this chemical. But it bears repeating (again from the article):
“‘For those who don’t want to wait until all the evidence is in, there is another question: How to avoid these chemicals now? It can be difficult,’ said Felix Grun, assistant researcher in the department of developmental and cell biology at the University of California who works with Blumberg. To minimize exposure to bisphenol A, Grun said people can avoid buying plastics with the recycling number 7 marked on the bottom, but similar types of chemicals abound in other products, too. ‘These compounds are everywhere, the carpet fibers, the PVC piping, etc,’ he said.”
A sidebar to the article added these steps to avoiding BPA exposure: minimize your use of canned food (most can linings contain BPA), and use glass baby bottles and BPA free sippy cups. See this Enviroblog post for more tips about how to avoid BPA.
But the reality is we can’t shop our way out of this problem. Since BPA and other chemicals are everywhere, we need help! These chemicals need to be banned in plastics, we shouldn’t wait until we see the effects in our kids. Apparently, Ana Soto, a Tufts University professor who studies endocrine disrupters and development, agrees.
“What else are we waiting for?” Soto asked. “There is evidence these chemicals have a multitude of deleterious effects in animals. . . We should be worried.”
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