Is Plastic Killing Us?

Is Plastic Killing Us?

By Jerry Bookout

It isn’t uncommon knowledge that high-calorie fatty or sugary foods will put weight on us. A few years ago though, scientists stumbled across a finding that sheds some light on our current obesity problem. Experts have a new explanation for why we are getting so fat and it has nothing to do with our food. Well at least not anything to do with the contents of the food, but rather what the food is packaged and stored in. Most of our food is processed and stored in plastic!

That’s right the plastic that our foods are packaged in for storage and convenience may be literally killing us in the long run by leaching chemicals from the plastic into our food. There are a whole range of chemicals infecting us from plastic and other sources that they have labeled as Obesogens and they are contributing greatly to obesity. These chemicals are surrounding us hidden within our everyday foods, water bottles, and a multitude of other sources. (1)

Up until recently, experts believed that the worldwide obesity epidemic simply came down to poor food choices and lack of exercise, but recent evidence is cropping up from multiple sources that there is much more involved. Baille-Hamilton in her paper “Chemical Toxins” wrote:

The epidemic of obesity, in the developed and developing worlds alike, is more likely a consequence of the exponential rise in the production and use of agrochemicals and other synthetic industrial agents, most notably the organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, plastics, and heavy metals, which are routinely used in food production, household-item manufacture, and agricultural practice.(6)

These chemicals are suspected to mimic estrogen and other hormones in our bodies and they are throwing off the function of our endocrine systems. These obesogens are suspected of slowing down our metabolisms, altering our sex steroid hormonal balance, changing our perception of hunger and fullness, and also affecting the way our bodies convert food to fat. They are making people vulnerable to weight gain even though they are eating normal diets and getting a proper amount of exercise. (2)

These obesogens vary quite a bit in their composition and also in their origin. The first category of these chemicals is classified as Organotins. They are used in polyvilylchloride plastics, fugicides, pesticides, wood preservatives, and marine anti fouling agents. According to research results, these organotins alter the function of the liver, adipose fat tissue, and the bone marrow. (7)

The second category of obesogens is perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) and phthalates. They are commonly used to soften PVC plastics and also as surface repellants on fabrics and other products. All of the testing points out that we are getting exposed to this class of obesogens primarily from plastics with PFC repellant treated surfaces that leaches into our food during processing. (2)

The final and probably the worst class of obesogens are Bisphenol A (BPA) and xenoestrogens. BPA is one of the worst in the lot and also it is one of the most invasive because everyone is being exposed to it in larger doses. For these reasons, this paper will focus more in depth attention to BPA and its health effects. (2)

BPA is one of the first chemicals that showed up on the scene as a potential obesogen and it is widely used in industrial and consumer products. It is routinely detected in human urine testing and a strong association has been made that this chemical promotes adipogenesis. (2)

Research has demonstrated that BPA has disrupted the endocrine systems in animals and humans in parts per billion doses and it is causing changes in animals that were tested at a thousand times lower dosage than what has been found in humans. (8) One big surprise in animal testing has shown that if animals are exposed to BPA in-vitro, that they are born at a natural weight but become significantly more obese than control animals when they reach puberty. (8) This is bad news for parents and perhaps it explains part of why so many of our teenagers are becoming obese at ridiculous rates.

Making people fat is one thing but in addition to that BPA has demonstrated much more serious effects in laboratory animal testing. BPA was demonstrated to reduce the fertility of the mice that were exposed to the chemical and there has been a significant link established between urinary BPA concentrations and heart disease. (4, 5)

You just cannot imagine how many of our daily used consumer products contain BPA. It is a major component in polycarbonate plastics. It is in the lining of canned goods, baby bottles, water bottles, plastic storage ware and god only knows how many other products. (3) We get exposed to this chemical every day all in the name of convenience. Sure we can just buy a can of tomatoes so we don’t have to cook down fresh ones like our mothers did, but who would have guessed that despite the fact that tomatoes are low in fat and calories, they could be making us fat?

It is sort of comical when you consider the ramifications of this situation with BPA. Americans spend billions every year buying bottled water and for what? Well they buy it bottled because it is convenient and for health reasons because of chlorine and fluoride in public drinking water right? In fact we actually will spend more money on two bottles of drinking water in a convenience store than for a gallon of milk or for ten gallons of tap water. Who would have known that a zero calorie drink could make you fat!

Many people could argue that this BPA thing is out there but it is probably only infecting a random segment of the population and it is accurate that not all plastics contain BPA. It is also accurate though that in 2003, 75 percent of the BPA used in the United States was used for polycarbonate plastics and studies have shown that the plastic can break down and contaminate our food and water we consume. (6)

Many reputable studies have been conducted to discover the percentage of the population that is infected and how much the common exposure to BPA is affecting us. The results of these studies are staggering. BPA was detected in the urine of more than 92 percent of Americans who were 9 years and above in the 2003-2004 NHANES study and the study also showed that the participant’s urine showed a 66 percent increase of BPA after drinking out of polycarbonate plastic water bottles for one week. (6)

As usual, the plastic manufacturers have responded to the heat they have been under from scientists and the media and they have produced “BPA FREE” plastics that are “safe”. Interestingly enough though, a recent in depth research study was conducted to evaluate the safety of different plastics available to consumers and here is what they discovered:

Almost all commercially available plastic products we sampled, independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source, leached chemicals having reliably detectable estrogenic activity, including those advertised as BPA free. In some cases, BPA-free products released chemicals having more estrogenic activity than BPA-containing products. (12)

Isn’t this amazing? People who know of BPA and its dangers specifically go out and buy plastic that is labeled as BPA free and in many cases get a plastic that is worse than the BPA plastic they were trying to avoid! The sick part is that these manufacturers could make a safe plastic but choose not to because of a few extra cents per item made.

To make a safe plastic, it needs to be exposed to common-use stresses and it must have the obesogens extracted using saline and ethanol solvents. Most of the current manufacturers only use one solvent in BPA-free products and they do not expose them to common-use stresses even though this process would create a much safer product for the consumers who are funding their businesses by purchasing their products. (5)

Even with all of the information that has been gathered, unfortunately obesogen research is still in its early infancy. Scientists don’t know exactly how these chemicals disrupt our bodies completely and there is much more to be learned such as how much of it is a safe exposure if any, and when in our development we are the most sensitive to exposure. We need to learn how and when we are getting exposed and what the long-term effects are.(7)

Conclusion

Scientists have learned much about obesity and it seems that our laziness and desire for convenience could be killing us.

Unfortunately, all of this discussion leaves us with the current obesity epidemic that so many people are now facing. Right now we are discovering that our progress in the name of convenience by using plastic and processing most of our food is causing unexpected problems for almost all of us.

It is said that so many times history repeats itself and maybe this is just another example of it being displayed right before our eyes. Many experts believe that the Roman Empire poisoned themselves by using their lead lined water supplies and dishes. You know they probably thought that they were in the pinnacle of their existence using lead because it was available and it was convenient. They could hammer it out into desired shapes easily and it was soft and easy to clean. As research continues, the current data seems to be pointing to a similar direction in a bit lesser degree for us with plastic and if that is true, what are we going to do to rectify it?

References

1. Jobst K. You are What You Eat: Stress, Survival Anxiety, the Environment, and Chemical “Obesogens”. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2002 April; 8(2):101-102
2. Grun F, Blumberg B. Minireview: The Case for Obesogens. Mol Endocrinol. 2009 Aug; 23(8): 1127-34
3. Stemp-Morlock. Chemical Exposures: Exploring Developmental Origins of Obesity. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 May; 115(5): A242
4. Melzer D, Rice N, Lewis C, Henley W, Galloway T. Association of Urinary Pisphenol A Concentration with Heart Disease: Evidence from NHANES 2003/06. PLoS One 2010; 5(1): e8673
5. Cabaton N, Perinaaz W, Beverly R, Daniel Z. Perinatal Eposure to Environmentally Relevant Levels of Bisphenol A Decreases Fertility in CD-1 Mice. Environ Health Perspect. 2011 April; 119(4): 547-552
6. McGovern V. Polycarbonate Plastics and Human BPA Exposure: Urinary Levels Rise with Use of Drinking Bottles. Environ Health Prospect. 2009 September; 117(9): A406
7. CZ Y, SI Y, VC J, DJ K, GS B. Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved. Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Mar 2