Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Perils of plastics?

Perils of plastics? Survey of risks to human health and the environment
"Today, plastics accumulate in garbage dumps and landfills and are sullying the world's oceans in ever-greater quantity. And plastics and their additives aren't just around us, they are inside virtually every one of us -- present in our blood and urine in measureable amounts, ingested with the food we eat, the water we drink and from other sources.
What are the overall effects of the plastics we unwittingly ingest? The literature Halden surveyed is ambiguous on this point, despite more than half a century of study. Part of the difficulty lies in the absence of good controls for studying health outcomes, as plastic exposure is a global phenomenon, and finding unexposed subjects for comparison is nearly impossible. It is known however that health effects vary depending on who is exposed -- and when. Infants and pregnant or nursing mothers are at heightened risk for toxic exposure or passage of BPA and additives like DEHP.
This January, the FDA announced an important reversal of its 2008 claims regarding the safety of bisphenol-A, expressing new concern about "potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children," and pledging to collaborate with other federal health agencies to reevaluate the chemical's safety." From www.Sciencedaily.com

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