F.D.A. Concerned About Substance in Food Packaging

[cory777]

Source: NYTimes

By DENISE GRADY
Published: January 15, 2010

In a shift of position, the Food and Drug Administration is expressing concerns about possible health risks from bisphenol-A, or BPA, a widely used component of plastic bottles and food packaging that it declared safe in 2008.

The agency said Friday that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children,” and would join other federal health agencies in studying the chemical in both animals and humans.

The action is another example of the drug agency under the Obama administration becoming far more aggressive in taking hard looks at what it sees as threats to public health. In recent months, the agency has stepped up its oversight of food safety and has promised to tighten approval standards for medical devices.

Concerns about BPA are based on studies that have found harmful effects in animals, and on the recognition that the chemical seeps into food and baby formula, and that nearly everyone is exposed to it, starting in the womb.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/health/16plastic.html?em

[Jamastiene]

1. Good.

It'll be good to make more of our food and drugs safer for us.

[condoleeza]

2. How nice that the FDA is finally saying something about this.......

Over 10 years ago my daughter watched half of 4 months of research go down the toilet when the hormonally modified brain tissue they were studying was placed on plastic, instead of glass-against lab protocol- by the other post doc, and it turned to gelatin overnight. She has almost NO plastic in her house now and when she had kids she didn't allow either of them to use plastic for any "eating purposes", nor did she allow them to have any plastic toys they might suck on. Toxins are everywhere, paint is full of it unless you buy special paints and they cost more, but we painted out her entire house with safe paints before they moved in and replaced anything that was a known toxin, including all the water pipes in the house and out to the street. The house is old, so doesn't have any of the toxic sheetrock from China in the houses built in the 80's & 90's, but I'm sure there are still horrors in her and all our houses. Her kids are brilliant and healthy and the whole extended family has followed her lead in an effort to have a greener living environment. We made all her children's bedding out of boiled wool and 100% cotton and now her sister is using it for her child. We can't remove all the toxins in our lives, but some things should be obvious.

How can food companies still sell microwaveable foods in plastic containers, covered with plastic wrap, packaged in plastic wrap? How can anyone be foolish enough to heat plastic in a microwave? At what temperature did these food companies package this food? Why would anyone buy prepared foods anyway? Boggles the mind. I don't care how busy someone is, and I was just as guilty years ago before I realized that the food I thought was safe, because I bought it at a good store, wasn't. I hope that this article truly is an example of the Obama Admin. being more aggressive when it comes to public health, so far I'm not impressed by Obama's choices in key areas, especially this one, but maybe I'm too pessimistic and just don't understand how a man I believed in and campaigned for, could make some of the choices he's made. If only we could get the "drug agency" to actually do some fucking research on the actual causes of all the auto-immune diseases that our doctors prescribe medications for - which they have no fucking idea how they work- or if they work, and are hyped to them by salespeople just out of college w/no medical background, instead of letting the drug companies run our medical care.

There is a CAUSE for illness. MOST illness is environmental in nature, it is in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the toxins we absorb. The baby boom generation is considered to be the most toxic generation in history. The very medicines we are prescribed are probably now being made using genetically modified grains. Most illness in the country could be resolved by common sense and regulation, but there is too much $ to be made off of the industry-caused illnesses by the drug companies. I wish I believed that a national health policy would take the power away from the drug companies, I still do not understand why our insurers are willing to pay billions of dollars in claims for medications that treat an illness - but do not cure it - when finding the cause and curing it would cost so much less Pretty sad.

Well, I could just go on an on about all of this....I just hope we ALL take this seriously. Nearly every autoimmune disease is caused by environmental factors. The drug companies are only too happy to treat Crohn's, IBS, IBD, Arthritis, depression, and my very favorite "disease du'jour" - Fibromyalgia - with steroids and drugs that only mask the symptoms but do not resolve an illness, when there is plenty of research that has been done already that would show that we either need to get the heavy metals out of our bodies or quit eating gluten and fast foods and absorbing plastic....but then that would involve people actually paying attention.

[happy_liberal]

5. +10000

They create the problem, then Big Pharma profits on the solution.

It seems if we had single payer health care and the government was interested in lowering the cost of health care, they would begin to look at prevention of the horrible illnesses cause by the environment and our food supply. That would be the real benefit of non profit universal health care.

[condoleeza]

6. Yeah, it would seem so, wouldn't it?

I consider myself one of the more informed and skeptical of western med. I have crunched numbers and tried to figure out the reasons why our insurance companies are willing to dole out billions on drugs that wouldn't be necessary if the CAUSE of the illness was identified and remediated, but I am still at a loss.

I have NO faith in western med and have fortunately followed my own path to solutions of lead toxicity and my recent diagnosis of being gluten sensitive. None of this was paid for by my insurance, but my insurance would have happily paid for thousands upon thousands of dollars paid out for steroids and surgeries that I chose not to take and I have resolved my health issues with mostly OTC meds and dietary changes.

So are doctors getting kickbacks?? I have no idea, all I know is that I trust NO ONE but myself as my doctor, and it has been a journey, but I have avoided all the drugs that were prescribed and which had all the side-effects I didn't want, and I have slowly but surely found the answers to my auto-immune disorders w/o drugs. IT IS WHAT WE EAT and BREATHE and ABSORB and we can remove those toxins from our bodies.

However, that would actually involve a single payer healthcare and government that was actually interested in lowering the cost of healthcare and we are naive if we believe that our government isn't OWNED.

[No Elephants]

3. Good. I stopped storing food in plastic containers and my water bottle is now metal.

[cory777]

4. not news, but?

FDA says it's unable to regulate BPA (another reversal), is news? Someone doesn't like my posts?