This article originally posted 21 February, 2012 and appeared in Public Health and Policy, Issue 614
Growing evidence suggests that even minuscule amounts of BPA (used in everything from pesticides to water bottles) can scramble hormone signals, and trick fat cells into taking in more fat or mislead the pancreas into secreting excess insulin....
Among the most ubiquitous and scrutinized of these so-called endocrine disruptors is bisphenol, better known as BPA. The chemical is a common ingredient in plastics and food-can linings.
This is reeeeaaaallllly depressing news. The "better living through chemistry" people keep having their way with us -- it seems we're always running behind them, cleaning up their messes. I grow so weary sometimes of living in a toxic world. From thalidomide to DDT, from hormones in meat and milk to the destruction of the world's coral reefs, from drugs persisting in rainwater to the ubiquitous metabolic poisons in plastics...are we humans ever going to be able to live in harmony with nature and our own biology?
This is distressing. These type of chemicals seem to be everywhere. I have never been one that fretted over this kind of news but this bothers me because I don't see that those that are suppose to protect society from these chemicals have the will or the ability to do it.
