By Cate Nelson •
September 11, 2009
In the wake of the Sigg/bisphenol-A controversy, a top researcher and CEO of Environmental Health Sciences fills us in on the news: endocrine disruptors such as BPA and phthalates are indeed toxic at low-level doses, too. And they’re toxic in entirely different ways than at the traditional high-dose testing indicates.
The way the tests work today is we think that by testing at high doses we’re gonna see everything. So that once we get to a dose that’s intermediate and we don’t see anything, we’re golden.
But the science is telling us that at really low doses as contaminants mimic hormones. They can have effects that are totally unpredictable by what happens at high doses.
Pete Myers spoke to Living on Earth about the consequences of current testing.
By Cate Nelson •
July 30, 2009
A new Health Canada study found that bottles marketed as “BPA-free” actually leach the hormone-disrupting chemical into liquids.
The study says that these bottles contain “trace amounts”, but some sources cite an internal memo, which says that two brands contain “high doses”.
For their part, bottle manufacturers claim that the study must have been performed wrong.
By Heather Dunham •
March 5, 2009
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is reporting that a recently-published study by Health Canada found that the vast majority of canned soft drink and energy drinks contain bisphenol A, a known endocrine disruptor and estrogen mimic.
The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in January, tested 72 canned drinks purchased in 2007 and found detectable levels of BPA in 69 of them. The levels are within the limits of what Health Canada considers “safe,” however, some critics believe that there is no safe level of this chemical, pointing out that studies in peer-reviewed science journals have shown that BPA can increase breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer cell growth in animal testing even at very low doses.
By Andrew Williams •
February 2, 2009
In shocking news, the Canadian government has announced that two chemicals used in cosmetics are carcinogens that are severely harmful to human health. A further two chemicals found in lipstick and other personal care products have also been found to be highly toxic to the environment.
The two cancer-causing chemicals, isoprene and epichlorohydrin, have been added to the Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist to prevent their future use in cosmetics. Health Canada is also proposing that manufacturers use best-available technology to control releases of isoprene.
The cosmetics chemicals posing a danger to the environment are the siloxanes D4 and D5, which are used as emollients to soften the skin and are found in most personal care products on the market in Canada and the United States.
In the wake of the Sigg/bisphenol-A controversy, a top researcher and CEO of Environmental Health Sciences fills us in on the news: endocrine disruptors such as BPA and phthalates are indeed toxic at low-level doses, too. And they’re toxic in entirely different ways than at the traditional high-dose testing indicates.
