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Studies Prove BPA Can Cross Placenta To Fetuses
Totes McGotes writes "From canned food to plastic bottles, Bisphenol-A seems to be cropping up everywhere, and now two new studies show that BPA freely crosses the placenta from pregnant mother to fetus. Plus, the research found that chemical transformations occur in the fetus allowing inactive BPA to be converted to the active form."
bisphenol-a is pants
...what is this Bisphenol-A and why should I care?
BPA! It cures cancer! Now it can cure your unborn fetus' cancer, too!
-SaNo
It will fix it! No matter what's the problem. Free Market fixes everything! Hooray for Free Market!
Just saving you the time to go on ranting how regulations are bad :D
So now that companies have stopped using BPA, what other additives should we investigate? Plastics still contain various chemicals that define the type of plastic...
I've moved to using glass for food storage. Although heavier, it's chemically safer since it's non-porous, and much easier to clean.
Studies don't "prove" anything. All they do is add a little weight to one side of an argument or another. Exactly how much weight depends on what was studied, how it relates to existing science, the methodology of the study, etc., etc., etc.
This study seems to add a little evidence to the belief that BPA is dangerous, of which there's already a lot. But only scientifically illiterate journalists and pundits (and, unfortunately, not a few opinionated doctors) look a single study and jump to big conclusion. You really need to look at the whole body of research.s
Apparently we don't really know:
The JAMA study measured urinary levels of BPA in 1455 adults aged 18-74 years, in relation to 8 conditions: arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, respiratory disease (eg asthma, bronchitis, emphysema), stroke, thyroid disease. Higher BPA concentrations were found only in association with heart disease, diabetes and liver damage. This is a preliminary study, and “association” is not proof of causation but it does give grounds for concern. Bottom line: The significance, if any, of high urinary levels of BPA is not yet known, but long-term studies are certainly needed.
http://envirolaw.com/how-dangerous-is-bpa/
Personally I think it's a bad idea to cook food in plastic containers, or store things in plastic that can act as a solvent. The fact that you can taste the plastic container in the food is something I find disturbing and we primarily use glass and stainless, if only for that issue.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
So it crosses the placenta. So what? Out of the infinite number of molecules, I would imagine some large fraction cross the placenta. What conceivable meaning can we derive from the fact that one random molecule does so? This is about one step better than a story about the dangers of DHMO.
A lot of papers were published in the 1990s claiming that endocrine disruptors such as BPA will cause children to have delayed onset of puberty. Since the onset of puberty has become earlier if anything, this seems to be in the same class of research as the "harm" of fluoridated water, power line radio waves, or dental amalgam mercury.
It is a conspiracy to provide all of the chinese single men with sterile (feminized men) who look like women, can make love like women, and are developed like women minus the actual female reproductive organs.
No wonder china is producing all of this plastic and sending it to us, in 20 years all of our children will be either genetic women, or genetic men who have developed into women in the womb thanks to the plastic from china.
China will then take over us for our women as Chinese men will be awfully loney by then.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
it was your cup that was poisoned. They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to BPA.
If something were really, really bad for you, the evidence would be overwhelming. If this is in fact bad, it's bad only to a barely-detectable degree.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
that we're too late:
http://coolest-homemade-costumes.shippony.com/images/food/drinks/water/halloween-costume-ideas-for-kids-01.jpg
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
After a little digging I find that it is suspected in everything from breast cancer to obesity in children. It has been suspected as being bad sense the 1930's but there is no direct link to it causing any notable issues.
So in 80+ years of research the best they can come up with is "There may be an issue with Bisphenol-A"
It also seems to me that in 3 generations we would have seen a difference or at a minimum science should be able to say "It causes XXX"
It acts like female hormones once it gets inside the human body. Not good for adults, but really bad for babies.
This study doesn't supply evidence that BPA is dangerous. It supplies evidence that it can pass from mother to fetus.
If you start with a female that has no detectable amounts of BPA in her body, get her pregnant, expose her to BPA after she has been pregnant for a while, and then detect it inside the body of the child....you have pretty much proven that it can pass from mother to fetus. Within any reasonable meaning of the word "proven," anyway.
First the oil spill now this.
WE GIVE UP ALREADY. YOU WIN. We surrender.
I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
was in the tea I an arduous So there are people sse... The number from the sidelines, whole has lost maintained that tto Megs of ram runs the reaper BSD's for membership. clearly. There developers The 'community' give other people future at all Be any fucking fly...don't fear to the crowd in OS don't fear the election to the have an IRC client is also a miserable
Chemical industry.
Yet more junk science from the same folks that brought you global warming, evolution and the "big bang". And these "scientists" wonder why people with brains don't take anything they say seriously.
For those of you that don't want to dig through the links in the summary blog, here is a more in-depth discussion of the papers.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
More fetuses will be born as female-ish babies and how is this a bad thing?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
I object to what BP is doing. They're already causing enough trouble in the Gulf. What do we let them invade our placentas and fetuses?
Oh, BPA. Nevermind.
It's a dull story, quite yawn-worthy, and really not in keeping with the tech/nerd/geek bent of slashdot historically.
Science is pretty good at detecting problems that kill you instantly. In this case, it would be a correlation between BPA exposure while pregnant and breast cancer your children get forty years later. It's difficult to make studies that prove this firmly.
The article didn't say that the study proved that BPA is dangerous. It said that they proved that BPA can cross the placenta. All it takes to prove that something possible is to record a single incident of it occurring. That is definitely within the realm of what a single study can do, and assuming that these studies were performed correctly, that is exactly what they did. There are a lot of things that cannot be conclusively proven with a single piece of evidence, but the use of the word in this headline here is perfectly legitimate.
I didn't know the Bonneville Power Authority had gotten into genetics. I need to call my broker.
I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
Nobody cares about all this baby shit. I don't know why people bother submitting such nonsense.
Can you detect all the bad plastic molecules? I'm not sure we can. Even if it's tastes ok, it might not be.
Now before you all start calling me names, I have a serious question to ask.
Could this by any chance have to do with the increase in homosexuality?
I've also heard that this behavior is due to a dense population (too many frogs in the pond theory) or perhaps we're just a more open society.
Life is not for the lazy.
The symptoms I've endured over the years is poor immune-system response, random allergies that could range from sugars to bananas, intense head-aches with muscle twitches, pulmonary disorders, abnormal bone growth, skin disorders, bi-monthly colorless hair, and sleeping disorders.
I'm not kidding. My biological clock was screwed-up royally. Back in Highschool, it was 10th grade when I grew a full facial beard and moustache that made me look older than what I was. I shaved constantly, despite that I had no sexual attraction to anyone. It wasn't until recently that I had been sexually attracted to anyone at all. I'm not any kind of fearmonger, it's just how these things turned out for the better. I've concentrated on my studies much better than others because I was contaminated with BPA, but that still leaves my childless as another Sir Isaac Newton. I think that this is why civilized societies have had more development than 3rd and 4th world countries, because with our much more advanced thinking capacity we constantly destroy our environment and think of ways to clean it up, and BPA is just another step in the wrong direction that inspires two steps in the right direction.
Getting to the chase, I know what about my diet and lifestyle that brought this onset. I've always been a neat-freak and health-aholic if not a full hypochondriac. I only drink water in plastic bottles, only eat American plastic-wrapped process cheeses, wear lots of synthetic clothing, favor non-leather gloves worn everywhere, cook in plastic containers, store food in plastic containers, and always chewed on plastic eating utensils while at a meal. I'm sorry about it guys. I thought all the synthetic materials were a step in the right direction, but as of recently I've seriously audited my lifestyle and all the equipment I interact with. That's not to say that I've stopped using plastic-encased computer equipment, but that's on the horizon to bring my interaction with plastic to a minimum.
I've read so much bad news about petroleum lately, that I read the article title as "Studies Prove That BP Can Cross Placenta To Fetuses".
And BPA is a petroleum product. Go figure.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
cuz not only are /. readers expected to know every tech related acronym or project name and what it's about, now we are supposed to know what some 'BPA' chemical is and why it's important without any explanation too. Why do I care if BPA crosses to the fetus? H2O also crosses to the fetus. WTF is BPA? Bi-Polar-Acronym?
At first I read that as BP causing these things, but then I realized they probably are (in the Gulf at least).
What he said.
That's what the newly-formed "she" said.
BPA as a chemical was discovered in the 19th century and it was investigated as a synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. However, it was never pursued as a production estrogen replacement (unlike DES). The question is, why not? Try to find an answer online--it's very difficult.
My understanding is that while it appeared to act like estrogen in the test tube, it turned out to have very little measurable estrogen-like effect in humans. My understanding is based on reading I did on BPA several years ago, but I have misplaced the citations. If anyone has a link to a detailed history of the pharma research involving BPA in the early 20th century, I'd be interested to read it. The Wikipedia article, for instance, is pretty much silent on anything involving BPA before a few years ago.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
wish i had some mod points
Young sluts 20 years from now are all going to be into dirty old men like me because my five inch dong will be bigger than anything they can get dudes their own age.
There are a lot of estrogen mimicking chemicals we get exposed to on a daily basis. Other ones in plastic are xenoestrogens which are artificial chemicals that interact with the estrogen receptor. Phytoestrogens come from plants & exist in some soy products. I don't know what rock you live under, but many countries including the USA are having increasing fertility problems. Fertility clinics are doing better by the day since this problem is getting worse. Then you have the other problem of estrogens secreted in female urine which is left over from birth control pills. There are many rivers around city centres where fish are starting to become feminized & are having a hard time breeding. This is no scam, it's really quite a problem & will continue to get worse unless we change something.
Use leaded glass to keep out harmful radiation!
Well, as I always say, "If you can't pronounce it, don't put it in your mouth."
Lemon. PASS ...and so on.
Horse. PASS
Pee. PASS
Polyethylendicarbonate. FAIL
Arnold Schwarzenegger. FAIL
Actually, some preliminary studies suggest that early puberty in girls may be triggered by the presence of a 'stranger male' in the household. In other words, Mom's boyfriend.