Plastics component affects intestine

[Nicola]

The chemical Bisphenol A used in plastic containers and drinks cans has been shown for the first time to affect the functioning of the intestines...

National Institute of Agronomic Research researchers in Toulouse found the digestive tract of rats react negatively to even low doses of the chemical also called BPA, the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences journal reported.

Their research, also conducted on human intestine cells, found that the chemical lowered the permeability of the intestines and the immune system's response to digestive inflammation, it said.

BPA is used in the production of polycarbonated plastics and epoxy resins found in baby bottles, plastic containers, the lining of cans used for food and beverages, and in dental sealants.

Over 130 studies over the past decade have linked even low levels of BPA, which can leach from plastics, to serious health problems, breast cancer, obesity and the early onset of puberty, among other disorders.

The French study focuses on the first organ to come in contact with the substance, the intestine.

The researchers orally administered doses of BPA to the rats that were equivalent to about 10 times less than the daily amount considered safe for humans, a statement from the Toulouse institute said.

They saw that BPA reduced the permeability of the instentinal lining through which water and essential minerals enter the body, it said.

They also found that newborn rats exposed to BPA in the uterus and during feeding have a higher risk of developing severe intestinal inflammation in adulthood.

The study "shows the very high sensitivity on the intestine of Bisphenol A and opens news avenues for research" including to define new acceptable thresholds of the substance for humans, the institute said.

In May this year, the six major baby bottle makers in the United States agreed to stop using the chemical.


http://www.physorg.com/news180040630.html


Nicola

[RawZi]

... baby bottles, plastic containers, the lining of cans used for food and beverages, and in dental sealants.

...

In May this year, the six major baby bottle makers in the United States agreed to stop using the chemical. ..

    It gives me chills, to think of so many people thinking it just as good or even better to bottle feed, and the lifestyles (diets) they lead that makes their milk poorer quality.  Basically nothing is done about it, just given the bottle.  A woman might be told not to drink coffee or not to nurse if she has any prescriptions. 

    Plastics seemed so special when they first started making them.  When will they stop making them or curtail making them to only the necessary?

[longlivecoltrane]

No plastic is safe. The BPA issue is their way of making people feel comforted by #'s 1,2,4,5, and 6. But again, how can you tell something's dangerous or not, if you have no idea what's being judged in the first place! To quote some old cartoons, "Hullabaloo." Ya don't hear that word too often! Just as they chose to only identify ?33? by-products of cooking, they've only chosen to recognize BPA and a few other "thingies" in the world of plastic. Ummmmmmmm. Glass..

[raw]

nicola, thanks to your brilliant post. i just wonder, when i feed my toddler the fermented milk with the plastic spoon, i just don't feel right using plastic.  where can i find nice shape of wooden or glass spoons instead of plastics?

[RawZi]

    Nicola is in Switzerland.  There must be some very special merchandise there.  She's so intelligent too.

    http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=spoon+wooden+ceramic&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=OLwpS4vjEZGolAfJ0p2cBw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=image&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQzAMwAg

    Places like eBay are often great places to find unusual implements.

    I'm thinking a spoon made of olive wood in a home workshop would be nice, if it could be made that small.

    Chinese places have slightly large ceramic spoons.

    I'm picturing in my head real paleo people way back when, little toddlers getting pieces of meat and fruit with their parents, with their hands.

    Oh, there are glass blowing shops.  You could probably request them make spoons custom!

[Hannibal]

This is why I practially do not use plastic containers, bags, etc.
When I buy muscle-meats, organ-meats, fish I take large glass jar (over 4 litres); for suet I take paper bag
I drink only from glass bottles.

[TylerDurden]

I think this whole plastic-issue is vastly overblown. For one thing, you have to have these liquids stored in plastic for years before the chemicals start leaching into the liquids. Also, if one doesn't store the bottles in open sunlight, the process takes longer.

I've been drinking excellent alkaline mineral-water from natural springs enclosed in plastic and have never had an issue.

[Hannibal]

I think this whole plastic-issue is vastly overblown.

No it isn't. There are more and more researches that vindicate plastic-issue.
You may not have negative symptoms, because it is a long-term process; besides you're on rawpaleodiet, so you cleans yourself more efficently

[alphagruis]

I think this whole plastic-issue is vastly overblown. For one thing, you have to have these liquids stored in plastic for years before the chemicals start leaching into the liquids. Also, if one doesn't store the bottles in open sunlight, the process takes longer.

I've been drinking excellent alkaline mineral-water from natural springs enclosed in plastic and have never had an issue.

Well, I agree with Hannibal. At least during pregnancy and crucial steps of fetal development this kind of chemicals that mimic estrogens is a very serious issue and a well documented threat as shown by the following paper among many others:

Environmental Research 100 (2006) 39–43

"Increased serum estrogenic bioactivity in three male newborns with ambiguous genitalia: A potential consequence of prenatal exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors."

 Francoise Paris a,b,c, Claire Jeandela, Nadege Servant b,c, Charles Sultan a,b,c,a
Unite ? d’Endocrinologie Pe ?diatrique, Service de Pe ?diatrie 1, Hoˆpital Arnaud de Villeneuve, CHU Montpellier, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France bINSERM Unite ? 540 (Groupe Pathologie Mole ?culaire des Androge`nes), Montpellier, France cService d’Hormonologie du De ?veloppement et de la Reproduction, CHU Montpellier, Montpellier, France Received 8 December 2004; received in revised form 3 June 2005; accepted 22 June 2005 Available online 7 November 2005

Abstract

In the past 15 years, anomalies of male sexual differentiation have greatly increased in both wildlife and humans in different parts of the world. Environmental endocrine disruptors have been implicated in the dramatic rise in neonatal ambiguous genitalia with variable rates of severity, such as micropenis, cryptorchidism, and isolated or associated hypospadias. Because most environmental pollutants, such as organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans, alkylphenol polyetholyethoxylates, and phytoestrogens and phtalates, have estrogenic and antiandrogenic activity, they are able to interfere with normal fetal male sexual differentiation. In a neonatal screening program of ambiguous genitalia, we had the opportunity to evaluate three newborns with male pseudohermaphroditism (MPH) whose mothers were exposed to endocrine disruptors during pregnancy. All had normal testosterone production after human chorionic gonadotrophin stimulation testing, suggesting androgen resistance or so-called idiopathic MPH. Sequences of the 5a reductase and androgen receptor genes were normal. Since environmental pollutants are known for their estrogenic activity and can be released progressively from the adipose tissue where they accumulate, we detected their presence by measuring the estrogenic bioactivity of the newborns’ serum with a recently developed ultrasensitive bioassay. We found higher estrogenic bioactivity in these newborns than in controls. In conclusion, the maternal exposure to environmental pollutants during pregnancy and high estrogenic bioactivity in the newborns’ serum highly suggest that ambiguous genitalia are related to fetal exposure to endocrine disruptors.

[William]

Since environmental pollutants are known for their estrogenic activity and can be released progressively from the adipose tissue where they accumulate,

Is this adipose tissue the solids that I filter out and discard when rendering beef fat?
I've been assuming that the resulting tallow is just lipids.

[alphagruis]

Is this adipose tissue the solids that I filter out and discard when rendering beef fat?
I've been assuming that the resulting tallow is just lipids.

These pollutants are fat soluble and so the human or animal organisms store them precisely in the fat of their adipose tissue. So if the initial beef fat is contaminated, these pollutants will unfortunately essentially remain in the rendered fat or in the resulting tallow, precisely because of their great affinity for lipids. The solids filtered out are most likely rather proteins from connective tissue.

Probably no reason to seriously worry about and refrain from eating fat, however. Moreover beef fat in particular grass fed should be less contaminated than many other fats as from certain fishs or birds high in food chain or from pork or fowl. Or human fat, unfortunately, which threatens the fetus during pregnancy when fat stored in adipose tissue is released with its pollutants 

[longlivecoltrane]

I think this whole plastic-issue is vastly overblown. For one thing, you have to have these liquids stored in plastic for years before the chemicals start leaching into the liquids. Also, if one doesn't store the bottles in open sunlight, the process takes longer.

I've been drinking excellent alkaline mineral-water from natural springs enclosed in plastic and have never had an issue.

Sorry to disappoint you. Here's some science. Enjoy!  http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/04/29/2555698.htm

Remember that water is a solvent! Water is probably the worst thing you could store in plastic other than acidic substances (such as perrier water, fruit juice, etc. < acidic). On the other hand, raw fat in PET (especially say butter that's JUST been place in a plastic tub then in the fridge 2 days before you eat it right after milking/butter-making) shouldn't be a problem. Whatever would possibly leach into that would be bound to and never absorbed by the body since the fat is raw. (If anything were to leach at all)

[TylerDurden]

Well your sig explains your over-emphasis on the pollutants issue re mention of fanatical devotion to Aajonus' teachings. For my own part, I've come across numerous claims re oestrogens affecting Nature and they all seem very vague and unproven. Plus, humans should, logically, be less affected by such (trace amounts of )chemicals than simpler organisms for obvious reasons(ie humans have more complex bioactivity than the latter).

[alphagruis]

Remember that water is a solvent! Water is probably the worst thing you could store in plastic other than acidic substances (such as perrier water, fruit juice, etc. < acidic). On the other hand, raw fat in PET (especially say butter that's JUST been place in a plastic tub then in the fridge 2 days before you eat it right after milking/butter-making) shouldn't be a problem. Whatever would possibly leach into that would be bound to and never absorbed by the body since the fat is raw. (If anything were to leach at all)

Well, water is a solvent of many things but not everything  and precisely not much of the pollutants in question here ! Let's notice by the way that the scientists in your link's study do not yet conclude that water in PET is proven unsafe. Modern analytic techniques are so powerful that very very tiny amounts of a given molecule can be detected. And something leaches from every container material, necessarily, as we are told by the second law of thermodynamics. Well, glass or other materials should be safer unless it contains heavy metals such as lead in some ceramics...     

As I pointed out above these pollutants are highly fat soluble instead. Notice that these properties (water and fat solubility) are usually exclusive for fundamental physical reasons. So I doubt that fat such as butter or oil whether raw or not stored in plastic containers is really safer than water. Just the reverse might be true.

 







   

[Raw Kyle]

Use glass bottles. I do, and have been for over a year. I've broken 3 so far. No big deal as far as I'm concerned.