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Plastics and Risks

By Kristie Turck •  Published 07/05/08 •  2 min read

Last updated on August 19th, 2022 at 11:01 pm

I hope everyone who celebrates July 4th had a great holiday! Now back to business. Well, a vacation-type business since I am away visiting my in-laws in Delaware. (Can you say organic fresh cream ice cream… oh yeah baby). Anyway, I recently got a lashing from a website passerby that our sources are garbage. It’s the first and only email I have ever gotten, assuming that I rely solely on Wikipedia for my information. I’m just the messenger here, people… I don’t make this stuff up. So let’s quickly go over plastics and risks associated with them.

I’d like to direct your attention to a recent article from the people we love at Healthy Child Healthy World. They’ve just published a great post about plastics and chemical exposure risks, especially in children. I urge every parent to read it over. It’s an excellent explanation and is why I do what I do with this website.

Here is a snippet:

Under normal conditions, a child’s endocrine system is in charge of slow processes, like cell growth and maintenance, by secreting hormones that travel through the bloodstream, acting only on those glands that have selective receptors for them, including: the thymus, the stomach, the small intestines, the heart, and placenta. Inside of us, chemicals like BPA mimic estrogen—the main developmental hormone in women that contributes to the growth of secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts and a widened pelvis—by plugging into hormone receptors. For pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and young, underdeveloped children, these impersonations can have serious impacts, restructuring our developmental pathways and leaving us susceptible to various cancers as well as physical and behavioral aberrations.

In a 2005 study on BPA exposure, researchers illustrated that perinatal exposure to environmentally relevant doses of BPA in mice cause changes in patterns of mammary gland development at the time of puberty; additionally, comparable changes in women indicate a more significant risk of breast cancer.

It’s an eye-opener.

Further Reading: Lets take a closer look at one chemical that is found in several types of plastic. BPA Crash Course.

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