by Kristen James

Abstract

Toxins, specifically bisphenol A (BPA), which imitates sex hormones when ingested, leach from traditional PET plastics when they are exposed to high temperatures or very acidic or basic compounds. Long-term, BPA may cause health problems including severe physiological damage to children. The FDA and many major chemical companies have chosen to ignore a growing body of research regarding BPA and continue to expose the population to this dangerous chemical. Corn plastics (PLA) contain no BLA and are a safe alternative to the toxin-leaching traditional plastic polycarbonate.

Introduction

In recent years, concern about toxins leaching from conventional Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastics has risen exponentially. Though there is a wide variety of potential plastic-toxins, the most thoroughly studied is a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is used to harden certain types of clear plastics. Leached from the plastics of popular products such as Nalgene water bottles when exposed to high heat, BPA has been shown through laboratory studies of rats and mice to have definite, negative physiological effects even in doses approved for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The dangers are especially acute for children under the age of three, whose development can be permanently altered by exposure to BPA.

Despite several investigations by the FDA – during which the research was done primarily by large chemical companies that produce and sell BPA – into the potential damaging side effects of BPA, the Administration has failed to claim anything more than a “continued risk assessment.” However, these reviews failed to acknowledge several hundred peer-reviewed research papers and over a hundred detailed studies conducted by independent investigators that present solid scientific evidence that BPA is a harmful substance.

Corn plastic, which contains no BPA or other toxins, is a safe alternative to traditional plastics and avoids the risks, both known and unknown, posed by the chemicals used in their creation and processing.

Bisphenol A (BPA) –What is it?

Bisphenol A (commonly called BPA) is a chemical used during the hardening process of hard,clear plastics like those commonly used for food containers, water bottles, and baby bottles. In order to form the polycarbonates and resins of PET plastics, BPA molecules are joined by unstable bonds that cause toxic leaching at high temperatures or when exposed to extremely acidic or basic substances.

Developed in the late nineteenth century, BPA mostly escaped general notice for the better part of a century until it soared into the limelight of public health concern in the late nineties, largely due to its presence in suddenly-ubiquitous plastic water bottles. Since then, hundreds of research papers have been published on the compound, and more than a hundred research studies have linked BPA to severe health risks.

Despite the protestations of the FDA and several major chemical companies, studies conducted on rats and mice have shown highly-probably links between BPA, which can imitate sex hormones in biological systems, and many physiological abnormalities. Among these abnormalities are increased rates of hyperactivity and obesity, early-onset puberty, aberrations from normal sexual cycles and behavior, greater susceptibility to certain types of cancers, increased sensitivity to hormones throughout the lifecycle, and structural damage to the brain. These effects have been noted in rats and mice whose systems have lower amounts of BPA than the FDA has declared safe for human consumption, an amount that is itself usually determined through animal testing like that conducted during the BPA studies. Critics of BPA nay-sayers point to the fact that all of these studies have only been conducted on animals, and not on humans. However, due to both the ethical concerns revolving around potentially poisoning test subjects – especially pregnant mothers – and the practical concerns regarding the non-existence of control groups within our population (over 95% of people test as having significant amounts of BPA present in their systems), these concerns are difficult to silence.

Unborn children and infants are especially susceptible to the effects of BPA, as they are to influxes of most hormones. While adults may recover from some of the effects of BPA toxins, the life-long development of very young children can be affected and, as with other substances such as alcohol and nicotine, unborn children can develop physiological birth defects if the mother exposes the child to high levels of BPA during pregnancy. Overtaking naturally-occurring hormones, BPA can influence growth at a critical point by interacting with certain types of DNA, irreversibly influencing gene expression, and activating or silencing gene sequences in completely artificial and potentially damaging ways. Once a child’s development has been affected in this way, whether prenatally or after birth, the defects that BPA creates are permanent.

BPA in PET Plastics

BPA is used to harden the type of hard, clear plastics known as polycarbonates (usually marked with a “PC” or recycling code 7) that are used for many types of reusable plastic products. Because of its unstable molecular composition, BPA releases toxins at a greatly accelerated rate when exposed to the types of conditions that these products – frequently water bottles, food containers, interior coating for aluminum cans, and baby bottles – are routinely exposed to, including high heat. When exposed to the heat of a microwave or a sun-hot car, toxins can leach up to fifty times faster than at room temperature. For products specifically designed to be heated, such as baby bottles or food containers, this poses a significant risk to the consumer, especially if the contents of the plastic container are ingested by a child under three years of age.

This behavior was first noted during laboratory experiments using plastic test tubes in the late 1980s. Scientists noticed reactions occurring in their compounds that shouldn’t have taken place without the introduction of estrogen, which the researchers had not added to the formulas at any time during preparation or experimentation. With further experimentation, they were able to trace the strange reactions to chemicals in the test tubes rather than from the experimental substances themselves. After running more tests on additional equipment to be sure that the estrogen-release wasn’t an aberration, the scientists published their findings: certain types of preparation methods for plastics (specifically those involving BPA) cause estrogen-like compounds to leach when the plastics are heated. It was later discovered that the same reaction occurred when the plastics were exposed to highly acidic or basic compounds, which also destroy the unstable molecular bonds of BPA.

Several companies, including the gas company Sunoco, Inc., have begun to speak out against the use of PET plastics containing BPA in products meant for children under the age of three. Canada has laws restricting the use of BPA in consumer products, which several states in the United States have attempted (thus far unsuccessfully) to emulate. In mid-2008, a law prohibiting the use of BPA in products created for children, similar to the private policies of companies such as Sunoco, came before the California state legislature, but was rejected by a thirty-one to twenty-seven margin. Critics of BPA have speculated that the results of a questionably thorough FDA investigation that was released days before the vote were specifically calculated to skew the results of the California vote in favor of large BPA-producing companies.

If polycarbonates are incorrectly disposed of – left in landfills instead of properly recycled – they can continue to leach toxins into the environment. Heated in the sun and beneath piles of garbage, the BLA can seep into soil and water, affecting local fauna such as fish and insects, and preventing nitrogen fixation in the roots of plants. In this way, BPA pollutes the environment and can contaminate food sources long before they are packaged in BPA-rich plastics.

Corn Plastic is BPA Free

Unlike PET plastics, Polylactic Acid (PLA) corn plastic contains absolutely no BPA. Despite facing heavy scrutiny from multiple sources including plastic manufacturers, corn plastic has not been connected to any potentially damaging toxins. Though still prone to melting at high temperatures equivalent to those that accelerate BPA release in polycarbonates, corn plastic poses no health threats to consumers even in this worst-case scenario. Properly disposed of, corn plastic biodegrades completely within ninety days, reduced to water and carbon dioxide rather than leaking hazardous materials into the environment.

Aware of the health and environmental problems posed by the presence of BPA in PET plastic, some major companies are turning to corn plastic for packaging of food products. Wal-Mart is a front runner among these corporations, following in the footsteps of several smaller companies such as Newman’s Own Organics. In late 2006, Wal-Mart began packaging several of its store-brand products in corn plastic and has been using the substance with increasing frequency in the time since.

Proponents of PET plastics have found many flaws with corn plastics, most of which are the types of problems faced by any nascent technology and are on the way to being solved. Among these problems are the price of production, the nuisance of corn plastics melting or dissolving at high temperatures, and issues surrounding the proper disposal of corn plastic products. Yet even among the most critical and radical opponents of corn plastic, the most dire effect it has been accused of having on its contents is the leaving of a possibly unappetizing but completely non-toxic taste in water left on the shelf too long.

Conclusion

Toxins, specifically BPA, leached into foodstuffs and other mediums by PET plastics are a hazard to human health. While the FDA has so far refused to acknowledge it, there is a growing body of scientific, peer-reviewed literature expounding upon the effects that BPA, acting as an artificial and uncontrolled sex hormone, can have upon living creatures. Young children, including those exposed to BPA prenatally, are especially vulnerable to these effects, which include several types of abnormal development and heightened risk for a wide variety of cancers. Released by the types of high heat to which polycarbonate products are routinely exposed, BPA can be released at up to fifty times the speed of room-temperature leaching, thoroughly contaminating the consumer’s system with potentially unsafe levels of this chemical. Given this, there is little surprise that, according to government studies approximately 95% of the American population tests positive for BPA.

Although surviving without the types of products that commonly contain BLA would be a costly inconvenience of forbidding proportions for many, corn plastic offers a safe, ecologically sound alternative to PET plastics. Corn plastic contains absolutely no BLA and does not leach toxins into its contents or, through ingestion of those contents, into human beings or the environment.