- Chemical companies have infiltrated our government agencies
and scientific communities
- In March 2008, a congressional inquiry found the FDAs
conclusion bisphenol A is safe was based on only two studies,
both sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry, a subsidiary
of the American Chemistry Council
- On late 1997, A representative from Dow Chemical (one of
the largest producters of bisphenol A) reportedly offered Missouri
University research funding in exchange for Vom Saal, Nagel,
and Welshon to withhold publishing their research findings until
authorized to do so by the Chemical Manufactures Association.
Vom Saals team rejected the offer.
- Subsequent studies performed by independent labs (other than
MU or those funded later funded by the chemical industry) confirmed
the hormonal activity of bisphenol A
- A study conducted at the department of pharmacology at University
of Pittsburgh discovered mice that had been exposed to bisphenol
A before birth had permanently enlarged the prostates (Gupta
C, 1999).
- At the University of Berlin, Gilbert Schonfelder (2003) detected
bisphenol A in the human blood of pregnant women and in the placenta
and umbilical cord blood of their babies
- Babies are the most sensitive to the hormonal effects of
bisphenol A (Welshon)
- A review of the 115 published studies on bisphenol A found
90% of government studies found adverse low dose effects of bisphenol
A. Interestingly, no studies funded by the chemical industry
found any effect (Vom Saal F & Hughes C, 2004).
- Vom Saal has featured in PBS Frontline and ABC's 20/20 and
has recently testified in front of state legislators regarding
bisphenal A. His 'Endocrine Disrupters' team (including Welshons
and Nagel) at Missouri University is now (2008) studying the
link between bisphenol A and obesity.
- In 1997, Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction
(part of the US National toxicology Program) assembled an expert
panel on bisphenol A
- Scientists not were permitted to be apart to the CERHR panel
if they had published a study on bisphenol A
- The CERHR panel was ultimately discredited and disbanded
when it was discovered that Sciences International, the company
contracted to write the CERHR reports, had been funded by more
than 50 chemical companies, including Dow Chemical (Cone M, Los
Angeles Times, 7 March 2007).
- In 1996, Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act
and the Safe Drinking Water Act. It mandated the EPA to begin
protecting consumers from endocrine disrupting chemical such
as those found in pesticides and plastics by the year 2000
- The US Environmental Protection Agency has been ineffective
in protecting the public from bisphenol A.
- Although scientists make up part of the panel of experts
to advise the EPA on chemical screening, representatives of the
chemical industry were also invited.
- The chemical companies were permitted to choose how they
would carry out the tests (Eg: using a particular breed of rat
and feeding rats a chow that contains soy, a natural estrogen).
- In 1998 a House committee began investigating the rumored
conflicts of interest in the scientific panels advising the EPA
- Find other
articles about hormone disruptors and plastics in our links
section.
Enviornmental Estrogens
- Organochlorine chemicals
- vinyl chlorides, dioxins, PCBs, perchloroethylene
- half of endocrine disrupters are in this class
- Non-organochlorine chemicals
- phthalates, phenols (plasticizers), aromatic hydrocarbons,
some surfactants
- Medicaions
- hormone replacement, oral contraceptives, tamoxifen, cimetidene
- Agricultural hormones
- animal products consumed by humans
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