The dangers of heating plastics

Plastics are known to contain a multitude of chemicals; they themselves are composed of chemicals. With so much of our produce in packaging, it’s time to start asking what are we really consuming?

Aneuploidy (an abnormal number of chromosomes) is the most common chromosome abnormality in humans, and is the leading genetic cause of miscarriage and congenital birth defects. Pat Hunt is a cellular and molecular biologist at Washington State University, where she heads a lab that studies aneupliody and the reproductive effects of environmental estrogens on mice.  Her lab is best known for its research on Bisphenol A, one of the main constituents of everyday plastics, which has been shown to impact germ cell development and increase the rate of abnormal births in those mice.

In the midst of her experiments looking for explanations for why aneuploidy occurs, Hunt witnessed an unexplained, eight-fold surge in aneuploidy . Careful study revealed that a lab technician had used a particularly harsh form of detergent to wash the water bottles and the cages of these mice. This caused the plastic in the bottles to leach Bisphenol A (BPA) into the water. BPA mimics the hormone estrogen, and, in small doses can be extremely harmful.

There is a risk that exposing a pregnant mother to BPA could impact the developing ovary in the fetus.  In fact, two distinct aspects of egg development can be impacted – the onset of oogenesis (egg development) and the packaging of the developing egg cells into follicles. In humans these occur during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy, respectively.  In short, there are at least three distinct windows of egg development that appear vulnerable to the effects of BPA;  prior to ovulation and in fetuses exposed in the womb during two distinct stages of development.

In short- sufficient data on humans is limited, but so called endocrine disrupting chemicals such as BPA are a worry until long term studies can prove otherwise. Low level chemical leaching may have long lasting effects, not just on your health but on your future offspring also.

Read More: 

http://www.germlineexposures.org/pat-hunt-qa.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/just-how-harmful-are-bisphenol-a-plastics/

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(03)00189-1?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982203001891%3Fshowall%3Dtrue&cc=y=

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412015300222

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23273747.2015.1069916#.VtRzboyLQmI

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11154-016-9337-4

http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/en.2014-1863

http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/jc.2014-4323

http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/er.2015-1093

Photo Credit: www.scientificamerican.com