Re: Food-Package Plastics may Damage Brain

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RE: /message/18340

" Rodney " <perspect1111@y...> wrote:

>

> Hi Ian:

>

> In recent years I have noticed a change in coating on the inside

> of some food cans. Instead of the previous metallic appearance

> (tin?) some cans are almost pure white on the inside. Do you know

> if this is the coating that contains bisphenol A?

I don't know. What I've seen indicates that BPA is in clear

plastic. But it might be in other plastics too. I've been aware of

evidence suggesting risks associated with the cloudy plastic that

most gallons of spring water come in, now clear too!

Here's the press release from Yale:

http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/05-03-28-02.all.html

YALE News Release

CONTACT: N. Peart, 203-432-1326 or karen.peart@...

For Immediate Release: March 28, 2005 (#95)

Chemical Present in Clear Plastics Can Impair Learning and Cause

Disease

New Haven, Conn. — Low doses of the environmental contaminant

bisphenol–A (BPA), widely used to make many plastics found in food

storage containers, including feeding bottles for infants, can

impair brain function, leading to learning disabilities and age–

related neurodegenerative diseases, according to Yale researchers

and colleagues.

" These data heighten concerns about the potential long–term

consequences of human BPA exposure, " said Neil J. Macy of Helen

Hospital, who conducted the study with Csaba Leranth, M.D.,

professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive

Sciences and in the Department of Neurobiology at Yale School of

Medicine.

Leranth's group, which also included Tibor Hajszan, M.D., a research

scientist at Yale, found that low doses of BPA in female rats

inhibit estrogen–induction of synaptic connections in the

hippocampus, an area of the brain involved with expression of

sexually differentiated behaviors, as well as with formation and

retention of memory.

Although estrogen is best known as one of the principal hormone

products of the ovary, a number of studies over the last twenty

years have shown that estrogen is also synthesized in the brain,

where it contributes to the development and function of the

hippocampus.

Macy said that high concentrations of BPA have been reported in

the blood of some pregnant women and that BPA contamination could

adversely affect human hippocampal development, with long–term

effects on children's learning ability. Also, when the ability to

make estrogen is impaired, as in old age, exposure to BPA could

adversely affect hippocampal function and contribute to age–related

neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, in which

hippocampal function is impaired.

About two billion pounds of BPA are produced annually in the United

States. In addition to its use in plastics, BPA is found in dental

sealants and prostheses. BPA derivatives are used as flame–

retardants in adhesives, paper and textiles.

Citation: Environmental Health Perspectives, 10. 1289, Online Feb.

24, 2005.