A study looking into the effects of BPA on rat testicles found that lipoic acid exerted antioxidant effects that can protect against BPA damage. The dangers of plastics have not been studied adequately, and the plastic industry has no desire or intention of doing so. They tend to stick around for a long time. This is, in large part, why they are in so many products. EDs are typically measured in parts per trillion, which is indicative of the fact that very small amounts can have a disrupting effect on us. In some cases, they cause a completely different response than its natural counterpart would have created. Endocrine disruptors may cause a more powerful response than the natural hormone would have or a diminished response.
They bind hormone receptors and disrupt the body’s normal hormonal actions. Excessive estrogen, estrogenic chemicals, and other endocrine disruptors have been linked to cancer, fertility problems, male impotence, heart disease, and many other conditions.Įndocrine disruptors (EDs) are chemicals that mimic our own hormones. These chemicals are endocrine disruptors that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. Most plastic products, from dishes to plastic bags to food wraps, have been proven to release estrogenic chemicals. Plastics leach endocrine disruptors, meaning plastic screws up our hormonal system.
Plastic particles will leach into food and drink and is also absorbed through skin and lungs. Plastic toxicity weakens the immune system, metabolism, and affects people’s skin, weight, behavior, and much more. Science knows that particles of this size migrate through intestinal walls and travel to lymph nodes, glands, and bodily organs. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces of itself, down to the nanometer scale (one billionth of a meter). At this time, there is no known way to completely filter or contain them. From fish to organic vegetables, microplastics are everywhere. Experts say since these fibers have been found in most of our water supply, they have to be in our food as well. Microplastics absorb toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases and release those chemicals into animals that consume it, like fish and humans who eat those fish. Microplastics are most likely, to varying degrees, already in all of our drinking water and in all of our bodies. Microplastics, Endocrine Disruptors, and the Environment Once it enters the body it can affect cells in ways that parallel BPA. Nearly 81 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPS in their urine. Then BPS was developed, and was a favored replacement they thought BPS was more resistant to leaching. Of course, the manufacturers denied and lied until the mounting evidence was incontrovertible. We found out it leaches into the ground and water and causes all kinds of problems. They found plastics in all but one brand.īPA is the starting material for producing polycarbonate plastics. They analyzed seventeen commercial salt brands from eight different countries on four continents for plastic particles. This study comes just after a damning study of plastic found in sea salt brands was published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports. The study analyzed 259 bottles from 19 locations in nine countries across 11 different brands and found an average of 325 plastic particles for every liter of water being sold. Just how bad is it?īottled water samples were collected and analyzed by scientists over a ten-month investigation. While plastic improves our daily life in countless ways, it is also suffocating our planet and causing catastrophic pollution, much of it hidden and microscopic. Plastic may be the most insidious and enduring product we’ve ever produced.
The soles of your shoes, the fabric of your clothing, your contact lenses, your chewing gum, your phone, food containers, mattresses – all are made with plastic. Article revised to include only educational material