PLASTIC RELEASES ESTROGEN
All medical scientists around the world are scratching their heads as they try to determine the epidemic of obesity everywhere. Obesity occurs mostly in the rich countries of the West, but we can see it as well in poor countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Looking more closely, we see that men are affected more than women! Obesity in men produces a large abdomen. Obesity in women produces large hips and breasts.
Any general increase of the hormone estrogen would manifest itself in more obese men than women, because women normally have estrogen in their bloodstreams. Women, however, would develop a higher incidence of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. This is exactly what we are witnessing!
HOW COULD THAT BE?
PLASTIC IS USED EVERYWHERE
Everything we eat or drink is contained in plastic. Thirty years ago, before the epidemic of obesity, plastic was not used as containers for food. All liquids were contained in glass or tin cans.
All processed foods were contained in tin cans. Meat was contained in uncut pieces in a butcher’s cooler. It was then cut by the butcher and then wrapped in paper and held together with string. Fresh produce was left in the open, sprinkled with water and after being selected and sold, it was placed in a paper bag.
In supermarkets, large paper bags were used to contain all purchases.
PLASTIC ENTERED IN THE 1980′S
Any reader past the age of fifty will recall that in the 1980′s plastic began to appear everywhere in food stores.
The Power Groups that controlled the large super-market chains knew they could make more profit if they decreased spoilage, decreased breakage of glass, and decreased labor by packaging all foods in plastic.
The Power Groups were aware that some plastics, the BISPHENOL A (BPA) group released estrogen, and could cause great harm to children, but they ignored that information. The Power Groups controlled the FDA and the newspapers and the government. Their only concern was PROFIT, NOT HEALTH.
The PUBLIC, almost totally composed of lazy, disinterested and uneducated louts, were happy to get their food in neat, see through packages. They knew nothing about estrogen or hormones or diseases. They only knew plastic meant less work and it was pretty.
The use of plastic has become so intense, that in the USA, one has to argue with store personnel not to have one’s food wrapped in plastic. In other countries, such as Australia and Switzerland, cloth bags for shopping are required, but, even in these enlightened countries meat is wrapped in plastic.
SCIENTISTS BEGIN TO WORRY
Across the world, scientists involved in the field of health, began to have concerns about plastics. The BPA plastic was studied over and over and enough pressure was mounted to convince some governments to eliminate its use in baby bottles. But the general use of plastic was ignored or suppressed.
Yesterday, a report finally surfaced. Seventy percent of all plastic emits estrogen molecules!
Here is the study:
“From plastic bags to water bottles, most plastic products – even those that don’t contain the estrogen mimic bisphenol A – leach chemicals that trigger a bioassay for estrogenic activity, according to an analysis of more than 450 common plastic products (Environ. Health Perspect., DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1003220).
The researchers who carried out the study, which only tested for estrogenic activity and did not identify any specific chemicals, suggest that this ubiquitous estrogenic activity could be eliminated by carefully reformulating plastics.
The study didn’t center on BPA, but instead focused on quantifying the biological effect of estrogenic activity, irrespective of the chemical causes, explains neurobiologist George D. Bittner of the University of Texas, Austin, who led the study. “Although BPA is the most notorious chemical with estrogenic activity used in plastics, it is not the only one, nor does it have the highest biological effect,” Bittner says.
The research was carried out by a team including researchers at CertiChem and PlastiPure, two contract firms founded by Bittner. CertiChem uses its estrogenic activity assays to test plastics, foods, chemicals, and packaging for clients. PlastiPure is a technology company that works with clients to design plastic formulations so that products can be certified to be free of estrogenic activity.
The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which publishes Environmental Health Perspectives.
The scientists extracted small pieces of plastic with saline or with ethanol, then added MCF-7 human breast cancer cells to samples of the extracts. After an incubation period, the researchers used ultraviolet spectroscopy to quantify the amount of DNA produced by the cells, which proliferate in response to estrogenic chemicals.
Bittner’s team found that about 70% of the plastic items tested positive for estrogenic activity. But when the researchers stressed the materials under “real world” conditions of simulated sunlight, microwaving, and dishwashing, about 95% of the products tested positive, including products labeled as BPA-free.
Without picomolar-level chemical analysis of the extracts, the researchers would not be able to tell which chemical or combination of chemicals cause the biological response, Bittner says. But he believes compounds that have phenolic moieties such as BPA or that are converted to or degrade to phenolic compounds during product use are the most common culprits of estrogenic activity. Not all chemicals that show estrogenlike activity are necessarily toxic, he adds.
“It’s not entirely surprising that the plastics have components that are estrogenic, as these chemicals all share similar properties,” says toxicologist Julie E. Goodman, director of epidemiology at environmental risk consulting firm Gradient Corp. and an adjunct faculty member at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“Although this study was not designed to address which particular components are responsible for the estrogenic activity, or whether they will have estrogenic activity in humans or enough estrogenic activity to affect health, the study’s design is reasonable to answer the basic question regarding whether plastics contain leachable components with estrogenic properties,” Goodman says.
For now, manufacturers who have gone BPA-free have switched from polycarbonates and epoxy resins to different base polymer systems, notably glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate and clarified polypropylene, Bittner notes.
“As our data show, the switch to new materials has not ameliorated the estrogenic activity,” he says. But it’s encouraging that some plastics don’t have estrogenic activity, Bittner adds, and he believes chemists have the capability to broadly design affordable products with properties comparable to today’s plastics that don’t release detectable estrogenic chemicals.” (Chemical & Engineering News, ISSN 0009-2347)
Dr. Pinna says:
Estrogen, in larger than normal quantities, can be DEADLY FOR WOMEN. BREAST CANCER RATES INCREASE. Estrogen produces abdominal obesity in men which leads to Diabetes and Heart Disease.
Plastic is almost impossible to avoid. Every food container is composed of plastic.
YOUR ONLY HOPE: WASH ALL FOOD PRIOR TO EATING OR COOKING.
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Filed Under: FDA • Food • Health • Power Groups
