by Sandra Lynn

Created on: April 18, 2007   Last Updated: May 04, 2007

Plastic products are embedded within our society. They have brought us convenience, are recyclable, lightweight, and unfortunately, highly toxic.
Consumers have been warned about the hazard of DEHA or Diethylhydroxylamine, that it leaches from the plastic into the product. Many have heeded the warning but there is another problem, all plastics contain Bisphenol A. All plastics with the letters PET on them are not safe, they contain Bisphenol A.

Bisphenol A was first synthesized in 1891, experiments in the 1930's revealed evidence of its estogenicity. In other words in could mimic the effects of estogen. Discovered by Dodds & Lawson 1936-1938, they shelved Bispenol A until later, when it was discovered it could be polymerized, into a form we all know as, polycarbonate plastic.

Over the decades we have seen the proliferation of plastic products, and now it is embedded within our society.
The downfall of this discovery is that, over time, the ester-bond that binds the Bisphenol A monomers to one another, to form polymer, decays over time. It also breaks down very easily when exposed to oxygen, light, extreme cold, or heat.

Now for the bad news, Bisphenol A has been studied extensively and it has been discovered that, low levels of exposure of BPA in lab animals caused breast cancer and long term effects on mammary tissue development. BPA also caused an increase in sensitivity to chemicals known to have caused breast cancer.
This strengthens the support of a link between the increase instances of breast cancer in women and men and, our constant exposure to plastics. Plastics contain estrogenic chemicals, it promotes fat cell differentiations, and accumulates within.
It has also been found to cause insulin resistance, it can alter the development of the immune system and the reproductive system.

Bispenol A studies in Japan with human females were very disturbing. In this study females with a history of spontaneous miscarriage, were given a blood test.
It revealed all these women had very high levels of Bisphenol A in their systems.
When exposure to 1/5 the considered "safe" level of BPA in mice, with newborns, BPA was found to alter their maternal behavior. The mice increasingly spent less and less time with their offspring, refusing to nurse and leaving the nest for long periods of time. This is highly uncharacteristic of mice with newborns in the nest.
Bisphenol A causes adverse effects on the prostate development of mice. Exposure amounts were similar to what millions of

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