Another plastics ingredient raises safety concerns

Another plastics ingredient raises safety concerns

A largely ignored contaminant doesn’t just resemble bisphenol A, the chemical found to leach out of hard plastic water bottles. It’s BPA’s fluorinated twin — on steroids. New laboratory studies in Japan indicate that the twin, called bisphenol AF, or BPAF, may be even more potent than BPA in altering the effects of steroid hormones such as estrogens in the body. The unusual way that BPAF blocks some estrogen actions and fosters others “could make this a vicious compound, a very toxic compound,” says Jan-Åke Gustafsson, a molecular endocrinologist at the University of Houston. The chemical is an ingredient of many plastics, electronic devices, optical fibers and more. The last letter in bisphenol AF’s name denotes the substitution of fluorine atoms for hydrogens and explains why the compound is sometimes referred to as hexafluoro-BPA. These fluorines also make BPAF behave differently than BPA in the body, biochemist Yasuyuki Shimohigashi of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and his colleagues report online April 28 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Both chemicals act on estrogen receptors, molecular locks found in cells throughout the body. Estrogen hormones serve as their keys, turning on genes that control time-sensitive activities such as ovulation in young women. Certain contaminants, such as BPA and BPAF, can mimic those keys.

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I really need to quit buying bottled water. It seems the gubment needs to step up to the plate and do some more research on this. Think how many people this actually effects.

worse yet, all of these pollutants eventually go downstream and have the potential to affect everything.


teflon, for one can be found in nearly every marine creature, BPA/F might have a shorter half life, but still, noone seems to care, because today it's all about global warming and real environmentalism went off a cliff at one point.

Originally posted by Raustin
I really need to quit buying bottled water. It seems the gubment needs to step up to the plate and do some more research on this. Think how many people this actually effects.

Get a good reverse osmosis system that has filters for chlorine and fluoride. Really your best option, mate. You'll eventually save in the end, and not have to worry about the plastics. I just got a really nice chlorine filtering shower head. Next step is the RO system and a nice silver thermal to take on the go. This brita filter just isn't cutting it.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by unityemissions]

reply to post by unityemissions


You know what I think I may just do that. What, if any, containers are best to store filtered water? I suppose I should quit smoking, drinking and filling my stomach with grease first but oh well.

It is pretty creepy when you realize every contaminant from plastics just keeps circling through again and again. Good point there Long Lance.

reply to post by Raustin


Giving up smoking and garbage food is important, but I think having pure water is more important. You can live without the smokes and grease, but not without the water.

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross


Something about drinking water with toxins etc in it bothers me more than eating like crap and inhaling cigarette smoke. Right or wrong that's how I feel. It grosses me out when I drink out of a plastic bottle and can taste the plastic.

reply to post by Raustin


Yeah, but the food and tobacco you use has had a whole lot of toxic water running through it in the making! It's virtually impossible to stay away from it all, but we can do our best to limit the toxic load. When the toxic load trumps our ability to detoxify, our immune system becomes compromised and infections/diseased states arise.

I'm really not sure which container is best, but what are our options? Aluminum isn't good. Glass is okay. Plastic is no good. Ceramic is okay. Silver seems best, because it's beneficial to a degree, but you can become toxic in this as well. So my guess would be to stick with non-plastic coated ceramic, glass, and silver. I think it's ideal to cook with ceramic or plastic. Want to get a full ceramic cooking set for my birthday this year.

I feel same way about bottled waters. The plastic will leach if the temp reaches over 80 degrees if I remember correctly. I'm in Texas, so most bottled water is like that from distribution. I will throw away bottled water full, if the first sip is plasticy. Plastic is orders of magnitude worse than most heavy metals for ya.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by unityemissions]

reply to post by unityemissions


Ugh that is rather depressing. So the water we dump that contains contaminants is used to water our food, which we then in turn digest etc. What a bleepy bleeping cycle.