Blame that Plastic Baby Bottle

I have long contended that it is impossible for toddlers to develop Type 2 diabetes through overeating and lack of exercise. It takes more than a decade for adults to develop diabetes due to obesity. And quite a few studies have shown that toddlers with normal metabolisms regulate their food intake with surprising precision and will not become overweight even if given unrestricted access to food.

So it comes as a welcome bit of news that a recent study has found that Bisphenol A is leaching out of plastic baby bottles at an alarming rate, especially when these bottles are warmed. Here, at last, we find a very likely contributor to the epidemic of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes: Bisphenol A is a chemical known to disrupt endocrine function which has been tied to the development of diabetes and obesity in lab animals.

You can read the actual study by downloading the PDF you'll find linked on this page from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice:

Baby's Toxic Bottle

To quote the web page just cited, "BPA, a synthetic sex hormone that mimics estrogen, is used to make hard polycarbonate plastic. Ninety-five percent of all baby bottles on the market are made with bisphenol A. The results of the U.S. study show that, when new bottles are heated, those manufactured by Avent, Evenflo, Dr. Brown’s and Disney/First Years leached between 4.7 – 8.3 parts per billion of bisphenol A. Recent research on animals shows that bisphenol A can be harmful by disrupting development at doses below these levels."

The only scientists who question the harm done by this plastic that is used throughout our food supply are those on the payroll of the plastics industry.

While the presence of Bisphenol A in babies' and toddlers' blood streams may explain the early onset of the kinds of obesity that are not normally seen in children who have normal metabolisms, the exposure to this chemical and many other plastics suspected of disturbing endocrine functions doesn't end with the end of bottle feeding. Sippy cups are plastic. Water bottles are plastic. Ketchup and salad dressing bottles are plastic. Dishware and unbreakable glasses are plastic. Microwave trays are plastic. Your organic vegetables from the so-called "health food" store sit on plastic trays wrapped in plastic. It goes on and on.

Another related recent story found dangerous levels of phthalates in the bloodstream--another organic chemical which damages the body. Who knows what other plastics are leaching into us and what they are doing?

Plastics, you must remember, are made out of organic molecules and organic molecules have this way of fitting into the receptors in our bodies designed for something else and disturbing their function.

So yes, people may be obese because they overeat--but they may be overeating because vital receptors have been clogged by these organic compounds that are similar enough to substances like estrogen and other hormones to fit into receptors meant for them. The presence of these foreign organic molecules we call "plastic" are very likely to be disrupting the complex systems that regulate appetite, weight, and blood sugar metabolism.

The energy spent blaming victims of this unfolding disaster for their obesity and diabetes has taken attention away from the questions that should have been asked--like why are children too young to be able to eat themselves into any metabolic disease suffering the kinds of metabolic disruption we only see in animals with abnormal genes or those who have been intentionally poisoned in the lab?

We're getting some answers now, but it may be years until action is taken. Meanwhile our entire population has bodies laced with these chemicals, which may have become permanent parts of them. And while we are waiting for more evidence, you can count on industry representatives to continue to claim that their products are harmless, just like the cigarette industry did--very successfully--for a full 30 years after scientists linked cigarette smoking to a wide variety of cancers.

It will take a long time to get answers to the question of how much damage these plastics that infuse our environment have caused. Most medical research is funded by drug companies for whom the obesity and diabetes epidemics represent a golden opportunity to make money from each and every victim. A person with diabetes will have to take three or four expensive pills every day for the rest of their lives. Curing the diabetes epidemic would send their stock prices tumbling.

Other sources of funding have dried up, most notably government research dollars. Bush & Co. have done all they can to gut the government organizations like the EPA whose mandate use to be to protect the public. The EPA now spends its limited budget campaigning against laws that would limit pollution. So there is little money available to scientists who want to research questions like what the true impact is of these toxic plastics that are circulating in our blood streams. And for every dollar academic scientists scare up to look at these questions, ten are spent by the chemical industry to obscure the issue.

Don't let yourself be fooled! Demand that your elected representatives increase public funding for science that protects the public. And in this upcoming election, be sure that whatever your party affiliation you elect representatives whose records show that they respect science and that their support for "life" doesn't end the day a baby is born.