Day: March 31, 2012

Ok not to sound like one of those Environmental Nutjobs that sets SUVs on fire.

There’s an article in the Los Angeles Times this morning that caught my attention. It turns out that the FDA has decided not to ban BPA.

BPA (bisphenol A) is a compound that permeates our environment. In particular it’s used in food packaging. This material is most often used in plastic bottles and often as a component of liners in cans, particularly soda cans. It’s literally everywhere and it’s some bad stuff.

Numerous studies have shown links to a number of maladies in mice. These maladies include developmental issues, and precancerous changes in the prostate and breasts. The developmental issues are interesting because in another study BPA levels were tracked in pregnant women. Their children also had BPA in their systems and exhibited hyperactivity, lower emotional control, depression, and anxiety. Given the ever increasing numbers of autistic and ADHD children in this country it’s perhaps not a smoking gun but certainly worth looking at.

This stuff once ingested metabolizes into a compound that looks to the body like the hormone estrogen.

BPA has been used for about 40 years. Estrogen is necessary for the good health of both males and females. However too much estrogen especially in men can cause some unpleasant side effects. Think Prostate problems, man boobs, low libido, impotency, weight gain, heart problems, and low testosterone.

Now think about the corresponding increase over the past 40 years of these problems in industrialized nations.

This is a somewhat unfair comparison because of access to birth control, but ask yourself why do the poorest countries in the world have in some cases triple the birth rates of industrialized nations?

At the same time, here in the industrialized nations of the world we have created whole industries around fertility and the treatment of Erectile Dysfunction?

Triclosan is a commonly used antibacterial agent. It’s used in toothpaste, and antibacterial soaps. It’s probably even in your carpets or underlayment as a fungal preventative. This material became common in the ’70s and now permeates our environment. Under common conditions in wastewater processing it breaks down into dioxins. It’s found in fish, and dolphins. The Canadians and the Swedes either have or are banning the use of Triclosan in consumer products. At least one study states that triclosan reduced the amount of serum testosterone in rats and reduced thyroid hormones too.

Obviously I’m not a scientist. I don’t have access to a lab or all the data. But I wonder about stuff like this.

Why if there is any question at all doesn’t the FDA simply ban these materials? They say further study is needed. Why not remove the materials and THEN do further study?

For gods sake we have to take our shoes off to get on a fucking plane because ONE IDIOT tried to light explosives in his shoe. We have to go through body scanners because ONE MORON tried to use his underwear as a bomb (I simply fly commando so there is no question when the TSA scans me). We can’t take more than an ounce of liquid on a plane because of the FEAR that the material could be a bomb.

If the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber had succeeded and blown up the planes they were on, They would have killed or injured maybe 1000 people altogether. That would have been tragic.

Yet we have enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that BPA & Triclosan are poisoning millions of men everyday and our government refuses to take action.

Why? Because it would be too expensive for the makers of bottles, and cans to remove BPA from their product lines. It would be costly for consumer product divisions to remove Triclosan from their products.

And all the while, our testosterone levels fall, infertility rises, and we lament the health crisis caused by obesity.

Tell me again that industry doesn’t control our government…

There is another solution

Men, go through your homes. Toss everything that contains either of these two compounds. Do it for yourself and do it for your sons.

If we stop buying containers and household products that contain this stuff then they’ll stop putting it in everything. Don’t let your kids handle or touch receipts. Believe it or not BPA is in cash register receipts, there might also be traces of arsenic and cyanide in those receipts too so keep that stuff out of the reach of your kids.

Most of all, make sure that this stuff isn’t in your baby’s bottles.

After all you want to be a grand daddy don’t you?