BPA From Endocrine Society

WASHINGTON (June 10) - Hormone experts said on Wednesday they are becoming worried by a chemical called bisphenol A, which some politicians say they want taken out of products and which consumers are increasingly shunning.

They said they have gathered a growing body evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health. The Endocrine Society issued a scientific statement on Wednesday calling for better studies into its effects.

Studies presented at the group's annual meeting show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources.

BPA, used to stiffen plastic bottles, line cans and make smooth paper receipts, belongs to a broad class of compounds called endocrine disruptors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is examining their safety but there has not been much evidence to show that they are any threat to human health.

"We present evidence that endocrine disruptors do have effects on male and female development, prostate cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease," Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who is president of the Endocrine Society, told a news conference.

The society issued a lengthy scientific statement about the chemicals in general that admits the evidence is not yet overwhelming, but is worrying.

Dr. Hugh Taylor of Yale University in Connecticut found evidence in mice that the compounds could affect unborn pups.

"We exposed some mice to bisphenol A and then we looked at their offspring," Taylor told the news conference.

We found that even when a they had a brief exposure during pregnancy ... mice exposed to these chemicals as a fetus carried these changes throughout their lives."

The BPA did not directly change DNA through mutations, but rather through a process called epigenetics -- when chemicals attach to the DNA and change its function.

Widespread Exposure

Taylor noted studies have shown that most people have some BPA in their blood, although the effects of these levels are not clear.

Dr. Frederick Vom Saal of the University of Missouri, who has long studied endocrine disruptors, said tests on monkeys showed the body quickly clears BPA -- which may at first sound reassuring.
But he said when tests show most people have high levels, this suggests they are being repeatedly exposed to BPA.

"We are really concerned that there is a very large amount of bisphenol A that must be coming from other sources," Vom Saal said.

Dr. Scott Belcher of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and colleagues will tell the meeting they found BPA could affect the heart cells of female mice, sending them into an uneven beating pattern called an arrhythmia.

"These effects are specific on the female heart. The male heart does not respond in this way and we understand why," Belcher said. He said BPA interacts with estrogen and said the findings may help explain why young women are more likely to die when they have a heart attack than men of the same age.

U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences expressed concern last year that BPA may hurt development of the prostate and brain.

A 2008 study by British researchers linked high levels of BPA to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.

Second-Hand Scents

Forgive me if this is a bit erratic. I'm very dizzy today, and so thoughts don't flow as well when that happens.

Scents - we all like them. Some of us a lot more than others. You know the kind - if a little dab is good, the whole bottle is better. But do you know what makes that scent? And do you know how many things in your home have scents added?

Here's a list of just some products with scents added:
Tissues, Toilet Paper, Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap, Lotion, Hairspray, Mousse, Gel, Deodorant, Makeup, Aftershave, Cologne, Perfume, Toothpaste, Mouthwash, Floss, Body Powder, diapers, incontinence pads, feminine pads, Window Cleaner, Floor Cleaner, Dish Soap, Dish Washing Detergent, Fabric Detergent, Fabric Softener, Dryer Sheets, Furniture Polish, Silver Polish, Dust Cloths, Cat Litter, Garbage Bags, New Furniture, Air Fresheners, Candles, Bleach, Blue, Ammonia, Car Cleaning Products, Lamp Oil, Pot Pourri, Carpet Cleaner, Snack Foods, Microwave Popcorn, Soft Drinks, Powdered Drinks, Jello, Candy, Chewable Vitamins, Ink.

The Chemicals In Scentology
The fragrance industry uses over 3000 (3 thousand) chemicals to create the scents in the products we buy. Most are petrochemical - also known as volatile organic compounds (banned from paints in NYS). This is actually being studied as part of indoor air pollution. Yes, the fragrances in your clothes and on your body contribute to the poor air in your home and office.

75% of all products with chemical fragrance added have phthalates http://kermitsteam.blogspot.com/2007/12/air-fresheners.html. This about this. You smear these things on your hair, your scalp, your face, and your body. They cling to you from within the fibers of your clothes, transferring to your hands, your face, and your furniture, children and pets. You inhale them as they release from your skin, your clothes and the air fresheners you can't live without. Considering your skin is the largest organ of your body, you have inundated it with these chemicals. Your lungs absorb more chemicals faster than any other organ in your body. Inhale deeply!

All fragrances are untested - the government doesn't see a need to - unregulated - you can't regulate what you don't test - and unlabled - if they aren't tested or regulated, they must be safe, so why lable them as being in the product to begin with?

Many personal care products have one of dozens of artificial musks. Most of these have been linked to hormone disruption. This is bad since these particular chemicals bioaccumulate, meaning they are stored in the fat. This also means if a woman is using perfumes with one of these mictures, it will be transferred to her baby during breast feeding. Hormone disruption is attributed to the feminization of boys and early development of girls Essential oils found in many products, has been linked to hormone disruption in prepubescent boys.

Scent-Free
More and more people are suffering from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Environmental Illness, and Sick Building Syndrome. Take away these chemicals and these people's health improves immediately. Fewer asthma attacks are reported, fewer sick days, sinus infections, allergic responses and more productivity is attributed. For more information, please refer to www.MCS-Global.org

Countries are starting to take the initiative by requiring scent-free locales within buildings - much as smoke-free areas have occurred in this country. Much of the research that has been done regarding the deliterious effects of chemical fragrances has been done in Canada, which is also leading the way in scent-free zones for sensitive people. I'd love to make all elementary schools scent-free, but that's just my soap box issue of the day.

How?
Many products are now unscented. You must pay careful attention since they'll say fragrance free, but not be unscented. Unfortunately, there is a difference and product manufacturers know this.
Use unscented laundry detergent. Rather than fabric softener or dryer sheets, use a 1/4 C of baking soda in the wash. It leaves clothes softer than anything you can buy specifically for that purpose.
Get rid of the candles and air fresheners in your home. If you need, sprinkle baking soda on your carpet weekly and vacuum it up after 20 minutes. It works wonders.
Use unscented soaps. Don't layer scents onto your skin with soap, then lotion, then whatever is in your clothing. Use scant amounts of lotion. You don't need nearly what you think you do.

Once you take some simple measures as above, you'll be far more aware of other scents around you. You may wish to cut more out of your life. Or, you may fall in love with your perfume again. Who knows?

Regardless, why use them? Why subject your body and the bodies of your children to unknown chemicals? And, to work with a popular scare tactic, if China put chemicals that are dangerous to pet and person in knowingly tested products, what are they putting in to products that are completely unregulated? Are you truly willing to risk that?

Is Your Home Causing Breast Cancer?

Robin Kay Levine, the founder and CEO of green cleaning products company Eco-Me, started her business in 2005 when her 35-year-old sister, with no family history, was diagnosed with breast cancer. "How does this happen?" Levine wondered at about the same time she was overwhelmed by fumes her sister's housekeeper left behind. "When you start thinking about it, there are so many chemicals we use until the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep," she says. "But no government agency tracks the chemicals being used in these products. Who's looking out for the consumers?"

Instead of offering premade batches of cleaning supplies, Eco-Me sells kits so people can brew their own at home, with ingredients Levine says our great grandmothers used -- vinegar, baking soda, essential oils. How's her sister now? In remission with a new baby.

Levine is on to something. Experts say that even products that meet government standards aren't completely safe, and can contribute to a variety of ailments, including breast cancer, ADHD, and asthma. Read on to find out if your home is harboring any hidden dangers.

Warning Labels

"Watch warning labels," says Robin Kay Levine, the founder of Eco-Me green cleaning products. No one expects consumers to be experts, however, or to know which funny-sounding chemicals are known carcinogens. Levine advises, "Look for products that give away the ingredients. Stay away from anything with a color in it. Labels that say 'keep windows open' and 'use in a ventilated room' are a dead giveaway."

Foam Containers

Foam containers are made of polystyrene, whose chemical ingredients can seep into food and your morning cup of coffee. Styrene has been blamed for skin, eye, and respiratory irritation, depression, fatigue, decreased kidney function, and central nervous system damage. Xenoestrogens like styrene are suspected hormone disruptors, meaning that they mimic estrogen in the body and disrupt normal hormone functioning. They are found in many common home products, including plastics and cosmetics and could lead to breast and prostate cancer. You asked for a doggie bag -- not a health risk.

Dryer Sheets

The slinky little sheets that keep clothes fresh are chock full of chemicals, including ethanol and chloroform. The ingredient benzyl acetate has been linked to pancreatic cancer and benzyl alcohol is known to cause upper respiratory irritation. When it reacts with ozone, the ingredient limonene can form formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent. "We have gotten used to these wonderful lifestyles with 'better living through chemicals,'" says Kathy Loidolt, a consumer health advocate and author of the Shopper's Guide to Health Living. "But our bodies are being overloaded with toxins. We don't need to be scared of everything. We just need to get different habits."

Plastic

Baby bottles (and other refillable hard plastic bottles and plastic flatware) are commonly made from polycarbonate plastics, the most common type on the market. Unfortunately, when washed and heated (say, in the microwave), these plastics give off bisphenol-a, or BPA. BPA is a hormone disruptor that mimics estrogen and has been tied to developmental and neurological problems for unborn children. In animals BPA has contributed to reproductive system abnormalities such as infertility, enlarged prostate, and abnormal chromosomes, as well as obesity and insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. Look for BPA-free alternatives when shopping for your next baby shower gift!

Figuring out whether plastic containers are safe can be confusing: polyethylene is safe, polycarbonate isn't; polypropylene is safe, bisphenol-a isn't. After repeated reheating, polycarbonate, a chemical seen in several plastic storage products, can leak BPA, the dangerous hormone disruptor found in some baby bottles. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the chemical in most plastic soda bottles, leeks the hormone-disrupting carcinogens called phthalates after repeated use. Deli plastic like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can also release dioxins.


"Ordinary" Cleaning Products

In addition to containing known harmful ingredients like ammonia, lye, phosphate, and chlorine, the majority of home cleaning products (just about everything under your kitchen sink) contain a vast array of chemicals, including toxic ethylene-based glycol ethers and non-toxic terpenes that become dangerous when they interact with ozone in the air. Experts say the single most important thing to remember about cleaning products is that you need good ventilation when using them.

Second Hand Scents

Dr. Anne Steinemann, a professor of engineering at the University of Washington, has long warned about the effects of "second hand scents" in everything from air fresheners to laundry detergent, spray disinfectants to scented candles. In 2007, she performed a chemical analysis of 30 of the bestselling scented household products and found that they contained known carcinogens and other dangerous chemicals. (The study appeared in 2008 in the Environmental Impact Assessment Review.) The products she studied contained more than two dozen volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which the EPA says can cause nose and throat irritation, headaches, shortness of breath, nausea, and dizziness. Together, the products Steinemann tested contained more than 100 different chemicals, none of which were listed on the labels. "The labels look benign," Steinemann says. "But some of these chemicals are classified as toxic under federal laws and can be affecting you even without your knowledge." She recommends making your home fragrant with scents straight from the source, such as mint leaves or cinnamon sticks.

Dye

The color dyes that make soap more fun to use and frosting more fun to eat have been linked to increased hyperactivity in children. "What you put on your skin can go straight through to the bloodstream," says Loidolt, the consumer health advocate. It's the same reason she recommends avoiding perfume and chemical-packed lotions. Countless studies have produced countless opinions on exactly how great an ADHD irritant color dyes are, but there is some consensus that FD&C yellow #5 isn't something we'd prefer to eat -- or bathe in.

Hobbies

Superglue and other super-strength adhesives (you know, the kind that take two trucks to pull apart on TV) induce sensitization, according to Dr. Paul Blanc, a professor of medicine and chair of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and author of How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace. Exposure can start with allergies and lead to asthma. Other hobby materials can be dangerous, too; people who deal with leaded toys, the chemicals involved in stained glass making and amateur metal refining should be careful. "People think there's a magic wall between occupation exposures and home exposures, but in fact it's a spectrum," Blanc says.

New Home Smell

Between the adhesives, stain protectors, flame retardants, and the chemical behind that mysterious and distinctive "new carpet smell," carpeting combines a lot of potentially unhealthy elements. The dyes and solvents used to produce and install it emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including styrene, xylene, butlylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and 4-Phenylcyclohexane (4-PC). Put together, these chemicals have caused respiratory and nervous system damage, as well as allergies, headaches, and nausea. Let the carpet air out for a few days in a well-ventilated area to reduce the VOCs and everyone will breathe easier.

Particle board, fiberboard, plywood, paneling, and some insulation, popular in homes of the 1970s and budget decorators, can emit formaldehyde, which the EPA calls a probable human carcinogen. Some of these materials contain urea-formaldehyde in the glue, which the EPA says is the highest indoor producer of formaldehyde, the chemical that can result in asthma attacks and other upper respiratory irritation, and burning of the eyes, nose, and throat. It has also been tied to cancer in animals. Unfortunately, these emissions can increase in humid summer months and some people are more vulnerable than others. The trailers the U.S. government provided to Hurricane Katrina survivors were giving off dangerous levels of formaldehyde.

Flame Retardents

Flame retardants used on upholstered furniture, mattresses, and electronic equipment have undoubtedly saved many lives, but there is a trade off. These polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, have caused memory and learning problems in rats and mice, as well as slowing their thyroid function and neurological development. It is not known what effect the chemicals may have on humans, though most people have them in their system.

Your Printer

Laser and ink-jet printers sure make our lives easier, but recent studies show that they also release volatile organic chemical emissions and ozone particulates, which have been linked to heart and lung disease after being inhaled. The jury is still out on whether the exposure levels in the average home are safe.

Hormone Disruption Cologne

"A single fragrance typically contains several hundred chemicals," says Dr. Steinemann, who studied the fragranced home products. Fragrances and other beauty and personal care products often contain the man-made chemicals called phthalates, or plasticizers, molecules absorbed through the skin that have caused birth defects in male genitalia in animals and may cause lowered sperm count in boys and premature breast development in girls. These chemicals have been banned from baby toys, but not your perfume. "Most of our exposure to toxic chemicals comes from the products we choose to use, not chemical waste sites," says Steinemann.

Non-Stick Pans

Nonstick and stain-resistant coatings, used on everything from your favorite omelette pan to your suede sofa, include perfluorinated acids (PFAs). Though their toxicity in human is still unclear, in animals, PFAs cause birth defects, thyroid hormone abnormalities, and liver damage.

Chemical BPA

Artical on AOL
http://body.aol.com/news/articles/_a/far-more-exposure-to-harmful-chemicals/20070806140409990002
(aka BPA)

Americans are exposed to far more of a controversial chemical than previously thought -- levels that likely surpass the government's current safety standard and which have been shown to cause harm in animals, according to a joint statement issued by 38 leading scientists.

While the chemical, bisphenol A, is hardly a household word, it is found in nearly every home and nearly everybody. Government tests have found bisphenol A, which is used in plastic baby bottles, dental sealants and linings of metal cans, in 95 percent of people studied.

While scientists haven't yet conducted definitive studies in people, animal tests have linked bisphenol A, which acts like a hormone, to problems such as obesity, early puberty, hyperactivity, and abnormal sexual behavior and reproductive cycles.

In their joint statement, however, scientists say they took a conservative approach, including only statements backed by many strong studies.

Scientists agreed that even very low doses cause profound effects on laboratory animals, particularly during pregnancy and infancy. The chemical can permanently rewire genetic programming before birth, potentially predisposing exposed animals to cancer. Bisphenol A also changes brain structure, body size and behavior in animals studied, scientists said.

Researchers issued their statement, published in Reproductive Toxicology, after reviewing about 700 animal studies.

The Environmental Protection Agency says bisphenol A is safe in doses of up to 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, per day. But a paper presented Thursday, Aug. 9, concludes that the high levels of bisphenol A in human blood and tissue suggest people are actually exposed to 10 times that amount.

One of the scientists, Retha Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, says researchers need to find ways to measure whether people have been exposed to bisphenol A before or after birth, and if exposure increases their disease risk.

Researchers agree many questions remain, such as: Does bisphenol A, like mercury, build up as it moves through the food chain? Could that explain why there's so much of it in our bodies?

The scientists' findings are at odds with other recent analyses, according to a statement released by the American Chemistry Council, which notes that the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that consumers are not at risk from the chemical. A report on bisphenol A being prepared by the National Toxicology Program's reproductive health center -- which held a hearing on the issue on Monday, Aug. 13 -- will provide a more balanced and accurate picture, said the council's Steven Hentges.

In the past two years, lawmakers in California, Maryland and Minnesota have introduced bills to ban bisphenol A in children's products. None succeeded. California is still considering a bill to ban similar chemicals from children's products.

Frederick vom Saal, a professor of reproductive biology and neurobiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia who signed the joint statement, says manufacturers should voluntarily get rid of bisphenol A. He asks, "Why would you subject your baby to something that you know is a sex hormone?"

4/29 - more information
From The Grist:
Down to the Last Drop Nalgene, Wal-Mart back away from BPA
Bottle manufacturer Nalgene will stop using plastic containing bisphenol A in response to concerns from the National Toxicology Program and the Canadian health department that the chemical probably shouldn't be sucked on by kids. Nalgene says it still believes its clear, hard plastic bottles "are safe for their intended use" but says it's responding to customers who "indicated they preferred BPA-free alternatives." Wal-Mart also announced it would pull all baby bottles made with BPA from its shelves by early next year.

Bisphenol A in your body
Your BPA questions, answered
NYTimes Article
Washington Post Article