It was some unpleasant news to get, especially on a Monday morning, and even worse if you happened to be drinking out of a Nalgene at the time. Students and faculty had gathered in the East Room of Green Mountain College to listen to a lecture by Dr. John Peterson Myers about a chemical known as Bispehnol A (BPA). The chemical, which can be found in plastics like Nalgenes and baby bottles as well as the lining of canned foods, leaches into our bodies under heavy use or high heat, and may cause some devastating health risks.
In the beginning of the lecture Dr. Myers asked to borrow a students Nalgene. “How many of you use these?” he asked, holding it up. A lot of people raised their hands. He went on to reveal that the chemical BPA (used in Nalgenes) can promote cancer, hyperactivity and obesity, and decrease sperm count in rats. It leaves the disturbing question: what about the potential health effects on people?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found traces of BPA in nearly all of the urine samples of humans it collected in 2004. Dr. Myers reasons that much of our exposure of the chemical comes from canned foods. Although the BPA is excreted from our bodies through urine rather quickly, severe health problems can arise when exposed to the chemical frequently, or especially when exposed to unborn babies and children.
Myers flashed photographs on the screen of what the BPA chemical had done to rats: inflated bladders that were about to explode, severe obesity, cancer. People who had Nalgenes with them looked like they were about to be sick. I thought about the bottles sold in the bookstore, or the plastic cups I drank out of everyday in the dining hall … suddenly I had the same nauseating feeling.
Unlike most lectures where questions wait until the end, students were raising their hands left and right throughout the entire talk. They couldn’t help themselves. They had just been delivered some rather shocking news, and they wanted to understand it as best as they could. One student seemed exasperated. “It seems like everything out there is bad for us. I mean what can I eat, drink, breathe!?” she asked breathlessly.
Myers was understanding, and his answer rather simple. Yes, there are a lot of harmful chemicals out there, he said, but I’m just talking about this one. And now that you know about this one, you can do something about it. You can stop exposing yourself to it as much as possible, and teach others about the danger. Buy boxed foods instead of canned, don’t use polycarbonate plastic which are usually clear or colored and marked with a 7. If you’re going to use them, don’t heat them up.
Although there has been no long term testing on humans, Myers is convinced that the health risks are severe—he’s stopped eating his favorite canned soups and doesn’t drink out of certain plastics. Others are also convinced. In China, when people found out about the health effects of BPA used in baby bottles, they got angry and took action. People from all over China bought 100,000 baby bottles and mailed them to the company. It was a powerful statement and the company took the baby bottles off the shelf.
“Why should mothers have to be chemical engineers while they’re shopping for their kids?” Dr. Myers asked the audience. Normal people don’t and shouldn’t have to worry about everything they’re ingesting. They need to be able to trust that the government and companies are testing these chemicals and products to make sure they’re safe before putting them on the market.
Unfortunately most companies cannot be trusted that they’re testing all their products for safety. And if tests are done, the results are usually slanted depending on where the funding comes from. Dr. Myers explained that in tests on BPA funded by the government or independent researchers, 153 findings proved that BPA has negative health effects. But in tests funded by the industries that profit off of BPA, absolutely no negative effects were documented. These companies have a lot to lose if BPA is taken off the market. And although there are alternatives out there it will cost them extra money.
Dr. Myers advocates for better health standards and taking more advantage of new science. He is the publisher of the website www.environmentalhealthnews.org which is a NGO that delivers environmental health news from all over the world. The public deserves to know what they’re being exposed to and what it’s doing to them. Sure it might be depressing, and it might seem like enough is enough, but you at least deserve to know. You’re not a guinea pig.
SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER
