BPA Is Just As Dangerous As It Never Was

By Josh Bloom — February 25, 2018 @ American Council on Science and Health

A February 23rd, 2018 statement from the U.S Food and Drug Administration about bisphenol A (BPA) should come as no surprise to anyone who has read our work. It affirmed that the American Council on Science and Health and other pro-science groups have been right all along and it is completely safe - something that incompetent or dishonest environmental groups like the Environmental Working Group or the Natural Resources Defense Council, or Internet hucksters like Joe Mercola and Mike Adams, cannot be happy to hear.

After a thorough two-year study, the agency has released a draft report of the NTP (National Toxicology Program) Research Report on the CLARITY-BPA Core Study, which debunks the phony science and fear-mongering that has already occupied scientists for far too long.

One area that has been of significant consumer interest is the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging. BPA is authorized for use in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins in certain food and beverage can linings. Given this interest, the FDA has routinely considered and evaluated the scientific evidence surrounding the use of BPA and continues to conclude that BPA is safe for the currently authorized uses in food containers and packaging.  U.S. Food and Drug Administration  Feb 23, 2018

Perhaps this silliness will finally go away, though it's hard to know since the activist homeopathy known as "endocrine disruption" has existed for two decades now.

The common use of the term BPA is a monomer - it is one of the two ingredients used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics, which are used in food containers, such as liners of metal cans. Polycarbonate plastics are ubiquitous, and very small quantities of BPA, which has been used for 60 years, can leach from the plastic. Minuscule quantities of BPA (specifically, its metabolites) can be found in the urine of virtually everyone, given sufficiently sensitive analytical instrumentation. And in the last 30 years technology has pushed the level of zero into the parts per quadrillion range, much different than the parts per million that used to be the standard for no harmful level.

The presence of trace, yet now detectable, quantities of BPA in urine has been equated with harm by trial lawyers and environmental groups, supposedly from "disruption" of estrogen hormones - a violation of the basic tenets of toxicology, not to mention our dozens of publications on this topic. It has become more difficult to claim harm because of this FDA study.

FDA senior scientists at the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) conducted the two-year study called the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity in response to a 2008 NTP report which suggested concerns about reproductive effects of low doses of BPA in rodents were worth examining further. It is now clear that these concerns were unfounded, which was confirmed by the two-year study. Highlights include:

• Studies of different doses of BPA in rodents were conducted.
• Doses were selected to mimic levels that would range from those far below to far higher than expected to be found in humans.
• A number of parameters (endpoints) were selected in advance, including growth, weight, and development of tumors. 
• With the exception of "minimal effects" on the development of tumors, nothing was found to suggest that there was any cause for concern whatsoever. 
• These minimal effects can probably be dismissed outright because of the animal model chosen for the study - the Sprague-Dawley rat, a breed well known for spontaneous generation of tumors, regardless of whether the rats are exposed to a given test chemical or not. 
• The "effect" noted was the increase in the occurrence of mammary gland tumors at one of the five doses, in one of the five groups, which is far from compelling.
• Although these findings must be subjected to peer review, the following will almost certainly stand. 

Overall, the study found "minimal effects" for the BPA-dosed groups of rodents.

The Council has been writing about the false scares of BPA for many years. While we know hundreds of thousands of Americans read our words, companies instead responded to activists and started apologizing for being in business. They raised prices due to replacements and chemophobes did not suddenly flock to their products. ConAgra did not suddenly get increased sales of Manwich from people who said they would not buy Manwich as long as the can lining had BPA.They were never going to buy it anyway and ConAgra later laid off over 1,000 people. Someone should have followed the evidence more carefully.

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BPA Safety-Deniers' Last Gasp (And It's Really Lame)

By Josh Bloom — March 2, 2018

There are no guarantees in life. Except when there are. Here's one. It was a pretty good bet that when the FDA issued the CLARITY-BPA Core study, the most comprehensive study ever of BPA, (1) which showed that the chemical is harmless, that there would be a few sore losers who would unhappy about the results, no matter how convincing. But to those of us who actually believe in science, the CLARITY-BPA Core study was a slam dunk (2), one of two notable slam dunks in one week...........To Read More.......

From the American Council on Science and Health

OId garbage from the "Food Babbler" resurfaces, just in time for Halloween - It's almost Halloween, and perhaps the scariest thing you'll see this year is the resurfacing of a 2012 piece by Vani Hari, aka "The Food Babe." At the time, she attacked "toxic" chocolate. Maybe she should get her facts straight. Read more.

Vaccine approved in the US protecting against Meningitis B - Meningococcal disease is a bacterial infection that can lead to serious complications. A new vaccine created by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. protecting against Meningitis B, has just been approved in the US. Read more.

Shoutout to ACSH friend Jack Dini for an informative column on chemophobia - ACSH friend and author Jack Dini published a column in the Canada Free Press countering fears regarding common substances found in plastic. A quick, informative read for anyone interested in what recent literature has to say about these substances. Read more.

Ebola quackery should come as no surprise, says Jon Entine - Jon Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project writes about the supreme idiocy of the organic movement with regard to the Ebola outbreak. Especially appalling is that they are arguing against the use of an Ebola vaccine that does not even exist. Unbelievable. Read more.

Indian government sees the light on GMO crops - Indian government gives green light to testing some GMO crops. This decision reverses a moratorium set in 2009 by the previous government on testing such crops. But Greenpeace, as usual, objects with no scientific rationale. Read more.

Is ibuprofen as effective as morphine for children with fractures? - A recent study suggesting that ibuprofen and morphine are equally effective for pain reduction in children with fractures has been gaining a lot of media attention in the last couple of days. But we say not so fast. Read more.

EWG rates foods for "healthfulness" - by their definition of course - Fear-mongering activist group is at it again - EWG is promoting their ratings of 80,000 food items, based on their own, "unique" parameters (are GMOs really dangerous?). If there's an ingredient that can be dissed, leave it to EWG to do so. Read more.

A colonoscopy alternative? It would seem so - Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. It is also preventable. A new home test developed by the Mayo Clinic, Cologuard, may present an alternative to those who cannot or will not tolerate the "prep" for a colonoscopy. Read more.

Swedish studies find evidence of a link between Herpes simplex and Alzheimer's - Studies find link between exposure to Herpes virus and Alzheimer's disease. Will there prove to be a cause-and-effect relationship? There is no evidence of that now, but more research is needed. Read more.

Remembering Dr. Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine - Today marks the 100th birthday of Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine. In honor of Dr. Salk, we urge the public to stop listening to ideas being promoted by the anti-vaccine movement and do what's best for you and your family's health - get vaccinated. Read more.

 

Ebola in New York City - should Americans be worried? - As New York City sees its first Ebola case, Dr. Craig Spencer, fear continues to circulate of an Ebola outbreak in America. Two New York Times articles argue that despite the new Ebola case, Americans should still not be worried. Read more.

LA City Council pushes a 'symbolic' GMO ban - We've heard of useless laws before, but this one may take the cake. LA City Council is considering banning GMO crops from LA county - even though there is no agriculture going on there. So what gives? Consider political expediency. Read more.

VT Sen. Bernie Sanders should stick to maple syrup - he's all sticky about the cost and value of drugs for hepatitis C - Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to hold a hearing on the high cost of drugs, especially hep C drugs which have revolutionized treatment of the infection. If Sanders is looking to make a point, he is picking the wrong area. Read more.

"If this paper were about science," says Geoffrey Kabat: Purported link between BPA from cash receipts and health effects - Frederick vom Saal, anti-BPA activist, tries to link "high" levels of BPA from handling receipts to increased risk of serious diseases. ACSH advisor, Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, calls out the study as an attempt to alarm consumers and get media attention. Read more.

Avoid those thermal paper cash receipts, says well known anti-science BPA critic, vom Saal

Posted on October 22, 2014 by admin

If you believe what you read about BPA and its harmful effects on human health, a topic that we here at ACSH have taken on many times, the latest development from Frederick vom Saal, Professor of Biological Sciences at Missouri University and perhaps the best-known fringe anti-BPA activist posing as a scientist, might stop your shopping habits, or at least make you think twice before choosing to get a receipt. In his latest fear-mongering attempt, he tries to link BPA from receipts to increased levels of BPA in the blood stream. So what?

Researchers had subjects use hand sanitizer and then hold thermal paper receipts. Subjects then ate French fries using their hands. Following the consumption of the fries, researchers measured the level of BPA in the blood of the subjects, and found that BPA was “absorbed very rapidly.”

To which vom Saal concludes: “BPA from thermal papers will be absorbed into your blood rapidly; at those levels, many diseases such as diabetes and disorders such as obesity increase as well. Use of BPA or other similar chemicals that are being used to replace BPA in thermal paper pose a threat to human health.”…..To Read More….

BPA Junk Science Headaches

Angela Logomasini December 13, 2013

Could your affection for bottled water be responsible for your bout with migraines? Apparently so, if you believe the latest headlines about the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). But its wise to be wary of such silly claims.

First of all, it’s wrong to suggest that single serving bottled water commonly contains BPA, because that’s simply not true. BPA is not used for single-serving, flexible plastic water bottles, as pointed out on the International Bottled Water Association website. They note: “It [BPA] is not, however, used in any retail-sized PET bottled water containers.” Nor is it used for most food storage containers like GladWare and other more flexible plastic food storage containers. So go ahead and put those containers in the microwave and leave your bottled water in the car and sun despite the claims that doing so will release BPA! They don’t have any BPA to release. But even if they did, I wouldn’t worry…..To Read More….

Canada does an about-face on BPA - again

Last week, the Canadian government reaffirmed the safe use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging, upholding its 2008 stance that dietary exposure to the chemical does not pose a health risk to the general population, including newborns and young children.

Although this report is reassuring, Canada is responsible for much of the anti-chemical hysteria surrounding plastics and chemicals today. Despite finding that BPA posed no health risk in 2008, two years later Health Canada’s Bureau of Chemical Safety declared BPA to be “toxic” and banned it from baby bottles, claiming that when heated, the chemical may leach out of plastics at levels harmful to infants.  Click here to read full article and leave comment.

My Take - This is another pet project of the green movement that has no foundation or merit.  Every study supports the safe use of BPA, a chemical that has probably been studied more than anything except DDT, and yet...... they just won't stop their unfounded, unscientific scaremongering. 

The BPA Wars: Junk Science and Junk Journalism

 By Alan Caruba

This first appeared here.  I would like to thank Alan for allowing me to post his work.  RK

On Tuesday, September 18, FoxNews.com posted an article by Alex Crees, a health news reporter, “Chemical BPA linked to obesity in children, teens.” If Ms. Crees had done any research to verify the facts she recounted in “a new study”, she would have known it was yet another bogus effort to correlate eating food with BPA.

Bisphenol-A, more commonly called BPA, is a chemical that has been in wide, safe use for over 50 years. It is used to coat the insides of aluminum cans and plastic bottles and protects them against food pathogens such as botulism and has the added value of protecting plastic bottles against breakage.

As I noted in my six-part series, The BPA File, In 2011 “the German Society of Toxicology released a review of more than five thousand previous studies of BPA exposure that concluded that BPA ‘exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies.’” Researchers concluded that BPA is neither mutagenic nor likely to be a carcinogen.’”

Let me repeat that, “more than five thousand previous studies.” At what point can one expect a Fox News journalist to actually check her facts?

A graduate of New York University, Ms. Crees studied journalism, psychology, and Spanish. There is no indication she studied chemistry. If “journalism” is defined as mindlessly repeating some news release that says BPA “may increase the risk of obesity in children and teens”, permit me to suggest that eating lots of snacks, ice cream and candy “may” also increase that probability!

Anyone who wants to learn the truth about BPA is advised to visit Junkscience.com, the website of Steve Milloy who has gained a solid reputation for debunking so-called “science based” fear campaigns. His data on BPA reveals that there is no scientific evidence that BPA:

• Has ever harmed anyone despite 50 years of use;

• Acts as an endocrine disruptor; and

• Has any health effects at low doses;

Furthermore, the data debunks some of the most oft-cited and false claims about BPA.

• BPA is not carcinogenic or mutagenic;

• BPA does not adversely affect reproduction or development at any realistic dose;

• BPA is efficiently “metabolized” and rapidly excreted after oral exposure

My series on BPA confirms Milloy’s findings, but Ms. Crees has written an article intended to add to the multitude of similar distortions while questioning the facts offered by authoritative sources.

The effect of this avalanche of articles has triggered a number of governments to ban some uses of BPA despite more than a half century of its use without any evidence of alleged harm, but governments are famous for acting on the bogus “precautionary principle” that essentially says that anything that might cause harm should be banned.

Going back centuries, it has been known that it is the amount of any given chemical that represents harm. Let’s understand a fundamental determination of what is toxic or not. As Paracelsus (1492-1541) said long ago, “All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison.”

Ms. Crees’ article noted that “the study’s lead investigator Dr. Leonardo Trasanda, associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, told FoxNews.com, ‘This study raises concerns about the need to reconsider that stance (the presence of BPA).”

Excuse me, but what the heck is “environmental medicine” other than an excuse to scare people with studies about every chemical known to man and God? As for Dr. Trasanda’s study, it set out to correlate extremely low amounts of BPA in the urine of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 years old.

In the event no one has pointed it out to Dr. Trasanda and Ms. Crees, urine is excreted by the body, but Dr. Trasanda said, “We are especially concerned that children who ate too many calories might also ingest BPA.”

The operative word here is “might” and the likelihood that eating “too many calories” might play a far larger role in obesity than any other factor!

To her credit, at the very end of the article, Ms. Crees quoted Steven Hentges of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council, who she identifies as a representative of “chemical manufacturers”, as saying that “Attempts to link our national obesity problem to minute exposures to chemicals found in common, everyday products are a distraction from the real efforts underway to address this important health issue.”

“Due to inherent fundamental limitations in this study, it is incapable of establishing any meaningful connection between BPA and obesity.”

Ms. Crees is guilty of both junk science and junk journalism. The Steven Hentges quote should have been the lead paragraph, not the last.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

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Campbell's Big Fat Green BPA Lie -- and the Sustainability Activists that Enabled It

By John Entine

  

How did the world’s largest soup company go from pariah to paragon over its use of the controversial chemical bisphenol A? It lied, and credulous NGOs and chemophobic campaigners played willing patsies. Here’s an ugly story of what happens when ideology corrupts science.  “I just don’t understand how Campbell’s is doing it,”……. Campbell’s, like many canned good companies, such as Heinz, ConAgra, Del Monte, Kroger and Wal-Mart, to name just a few, has faced strident attacks from a coalition of advocacy groups and what’s known as the “socially responsible business community” for using epoxy liners made in part with BPA in its canned goods. Regulators around the world uniformly say BPA safely protects against spoiling and poses no danger at the minute levels used in cans, but many activist groups portray it as a ‘child killer’……“Activism Works,” was the self-celebratory headline at TruthTheory.com. “Campbell’s Drops BPA in Response to Health Activism, Outrage.”….. For the rest of its canned business—95% or more— Campbell’s has known since March 5 that the media was wrongly praising it for something it hasn’t done, and doesn’t even believe in.  Campbell’s, like its competitors, will stick with what’s safe and effective: BPA…..This is a sad story—for Campbell’s, for advocacy groups that may mean well but have lost their way and for large swaths of the “sustainability” and “progressive” communities, which increasingly rely on litmus test ideology….(To Read the Entire Article)

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A Teachable Moment about Chemophobia

By Alan Caruba

Having written a series, “The BPA File”, in which I detailed the vast efforts made worldwide to ban bisphenol-A, a chemical in use for the last sixty years to protect food containers against spoilage and to strengthen plastic bottles against breakage, I naturally welcomed news that the Food and Drug Administration has recently concluded the claims made against it lacked “scientific information” to justify the claims that have been made against it.

In fact, it was news enough to merit an article in The Wall Street Journal. Ask any physician about the role of chemicals in the lives of humans and you will learn that we are walking chemical machines that not only ingest the chemicals we need to live—food and liquids—but we manufacture them in our bodies to maintain our health and, at the same time, eliminate harmful chemicals on a daily basis. This is necessary because we live in a world composed of chemicals, from ordinary water to the vitamin and nutrient content of what we eat.

Ask any chemophobe—a person subject to fears about any and all chemicals—and they will begin to reel off the names of various compounds they are convinced will kill you. What they never seem to understand is that it is the dose—the amount of the chemical—that can constitute harm. In the case of the foods we eat, their processing and packaging, the dose is so small as to represent no harm whatever. Even ordinary potatoes contain arsenic!

That’s why another story caught my eye. It was from Environment Canada and said, “The government of Canada has decided that Siloxane D5 is not harmful to the environment.” This was a welcomed reversal of a 2009 assessment that questioned D5’s environmental safety. One can only hope that the U.S. government’s massive regulatory machine, in this case the EPA, gets the message that good science is essential to good decisions.

Environment Canada described D5, a material found in many consumer products, saying, “Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) is an odorless, colorless liquid found in a number of personal care products, including deodorants, antiperspirants, cosmetics, shampoos, and body lotions. It is used in the production of silicone polymers and may also be used as a dry-cleaning solvent and in industrial cleaning.”

One can only imagine how many chemophobes have decided not to wash themselves, use cosmetics or antiperspirants because they are convinced they will die if they do.

I picked up the phone to Karluss Thomas, the Executive Director of the Silicone Environmental health & Safety Council of North America (SEHSC) to inquire whether D5 was on some watch list in the U.S. and he noted it is on a list of some 80 compounds scheduled for review by the EPA.

Mr. Thomas noted that his trade association had filed an objection with Environment Canada regarding earlier concerns about D5 and was pleased that a first-even Board of Review had been convened by the Canadian Environment Minister. The Board, after a rigorous review of the data, completely cleared D5 of any claims regarding its safe use. Three top, independent toxicologists gave it a thorough review. The findings, he said, had “broader implications” for any comparable review here in the U.S.

The Canadian action was a teachable moment for everyone who reads or hears similar claims about any chemical or product. Just as the PR campaign against Alar proved to be false and just as the latest claims against lean meat—labeled pink slime by its opponents—are equally bogus, real science inevitably disproves the claims.

Reliance on sound science leads to sound policy and spares society the harm that junk science causes to the economy, consumers, and to science itself.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

The American Council on Science and Health, 2011: Week 38

The presence of linked articles here are merely a way of showing what is going on, whether I agree or disagree with the positions presented. Rich Kozlovich

ASTHMA

Gasping for common sense
If you're someone who relies on an over-the-counter inhaler to cope with asthma, you should be sure that you have a doctor's prescription for an albuterol inhaler by the end of this year.

CANCER

For women with BRCA mutation, diagnosis comes earlier in the younger generation
In a new study comparing the difference in the age at breast cancer diagnosis between older and younger generations of women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer gene mutations, researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that breast cancer is diagnosed about eight years earlier in the younger women.

American Cancer Society goes after the wrong target
Just last week we reported that the smoking rate in New York City dropped to an all-time low of 14 percent - down from 22 percent in 2002.

Men need to know the facts of life — post-prostate cancer
A study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found it possible to approximate men's level of sexual function after treatment for prostate cancer.

Surprising uptick in mortality for premature babies when they grow up
It's been shown previously that infants born prematurely suffer an increased risk of adverse health effects, but does this effect continue into adulthood?

BPA is adult- and kid-friendly
Last year, ACSH released a report highlighting breast cancer organizations that relied on flawed science and chemophobia to support the alleged link between environmental chemicals and breast cancer.

DIABETES

BPA not linked to type 2 diabetes: Who said it was, anyway?
As we have often noted,independent and government-sponsored studies worldwide have repeatedly found that normal exposure to the plastic hardener bisphenol-A (BPA) poses no risk to human health.

Diabetes and dementia: Linked through insulin
Systemic insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 ("adult onset") diabetes. Studies done over the past several years have also found that a similar mechanism applies in the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients. Now, a study of over 1,000 people in Japan has found that diabetics may be at an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

DIALYSIS

Dialing up the dialysis
Patients suffering from kidney disease rely on dialysis in order to stay alive. Without functioning kidneys to remove the waste and fluids that accumulate in the body, the majority of the 400,000 Americans with this condition have their blood purified by a dialysis machine three days a week. Yet a major study suggests that thrice-weekly treatment may not be frequent enough...

ORGANIC

Soy disappointing: Supplements don’t prevent post-menopausal artery-hardening
The case for soy as a cure-all continues to be called into question.

PESTICIDES

Bedbugged about insecticides? Just use as advised
In a number of U.S. cities (New York, for instance), bedbugs have become a relatively common concern. Do> you also need to be worried about the insecticides used to combat them? Well…yes and no.

PHARMA

Possible problems with Zofran could be bad news for chemo patients
Nausea and vomiting, possibly the most unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy, have been treated for the past twenty years with a drug called ondansetron (Zofran).

Cheaper might not be better
It was just ten years ago when in the face of the AIDS pandemic, wealthier nations and big pharma agreed to give up patent rights and profits in order to provide developing nations with vital treatments.

The problem with big government pharma
What will be the upshot if the federal government sets up its own drug development and commercialization program?

HEART

No support for routine ECG screening
When it comes to deciding whether to screen asymptomatic adults for coronary artery disease (CAD) with either a resting or exercise ECG, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has not changed its guidelines since its recommendation in 2004 against such routine screening.

STUDIES, TRUE, FALSE AND MISLEADING

Little white lies in stroke research?
Does the proverbial apple a day really prevent stroke, as a Dutch study now in the journal Stroke suggests?

TOBACCO

Results of a new snus survey led to misleading conclusions
Upon initially reading the results of new research that found that nearly 30 percent of U.S. male smokers between the ages of 18 and 24 who were living in snus test market areas had tried the product, Dr. Ross thought the study was going to finally reveal the truth about snus and other smokeless tobacco products - that they can help smokers get off deadly cigarettes.

VACCINATIONS

Double dose on vaccine news
We've been saying it for nearly a decade now: Vaccinating infants and schoolchildren against the flu will result in major health benefits.

If there is a health scare today, the American Council on Science and Health will most likely have the answer by tomorrow; and for members it will appear in your e-mail. No effort on your part, except to read the answer. All that the ACSH is interested in are the facts and they are prepared to follow them wherever they lead. Who can ask for more?  Please Donate Now!

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Alan Caruba's BPA File Blog

By Rich Kozlovich

Alan Caruba has created The BPA File blog, which will show a series of six articles clearly demonstrating how this issue has been pushed by the green movment and their allies. This is another anti-chemical campaign that is just as dishonest, unscientific and detrimental to mankind as was the campaign aganst DDT or even Alar. Junk science, junk scientists, and a green movement that must be insane to continue down the path they are taking.

I am not sure what Alan's long term intention is for this blog, but it is hoped that he will continue to expand on this topic. This effort by the green movement is another outrage against humanity. We, as a society, need to start getting this; "to be green is to be irrational and misanthropic". Legislators and regulators need to stand up on their hind legs and become the men of old....as we once were. It was one thing to be gulled by the green movement in 1972, but we know better now. It is no longer a matter of scientific ignorance; it is a matter of courage to stand up and do the right thing!

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Banning BPA Will Kill People - The BPA File, Part 6

By Alan Caruba

The lies being told about Bisphenol-A, BPA, via the print and broadcast media, and via the Internet are a destructive tsunami intended to ban its use. If successful, people will die.

In previous parts of this series on BPA, I have identified environmental organizations and public relations firms that have worked as sponsors and/or purveyors of systematic falsehoods about BPA.

The inescapable conclusion is that there is an intricate matrix of comparable groups behind a global fraud that reeks of the same pathology and methodology as the disgraced and debunked “global warming” hoax. But the results of a successful BPA hoax could have deadly consequences.

BPA has been in use for more than a half century and as such, it is among the most tested substances in use today. It is used to line the insides of metal containers and to make shatterproof safety plastics. Unlike what the junk science merchants would have us believe, BPA is not a carcinogen, it is not mutagenic and it’s not an ‘endocrine disruptor.’

Stated simply, BPA improves human health and safety.

Dr. Angela Logomasini, PhD, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, authored the report “Anti-BPA Packaging Laws Jeopardize Public health,” and concluded, in reference to efforts at the state level to restrict BPA, that “these policies threaten to undermine food safety because BPA is used to make resins that line metal cans and other packaging to prevent the development of dangerous pathogens and other contamination.”

The safety characteristics provided by BPA in making shatterproof plastic are no less valuable. Consider this simple and common scenario: a new mother trying to care for her infant while literally juggling a telephone, a cooking utensil and a glass baby bottle. This is actually one of the reasons that bottles made of hardened, shatterproof plastic became so popular so quickly; they were safe to use and spared mothers the risk of shards of shattered glass in homes with infants and toddlers.

We take for granted that we eat all manner of food packaged in cans as well as food and drink in plastic bottles. Imagine if you could not be sure that it was safe to eat or drink? Imagine if you had to fear the contents of a metal can of soup every time it was opened? Or feared what might happen if you drank soda from a plastic bottle?

Banning the use of BPA would put the contents of billions of cans and bottles at risk of contamination, a function that BPA protects against every day and everywhere around the planet. The risk of a BPA ban is clear; there are no alternatives to BPA that have a similarly tested safety profile.

Thousands of studies have been conducted on BPA and not a single one of them has ever shown any harm to human health from BPA in normal consumer use.

This truth was illustrated in an April article by author Jon Entine who reported “A comprehensive review by the German Society of Toxicology of thousands of studies on BPA concluded, ‘(BPA) exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies.’” During June 2011 in Europe more people died from eating organic vegetables than ever exhibited so much as a symptom of illness due to BPA over the past half century.

While activists clamor for bans on BPA, they’re largely mute when asked what the alternative might be. A report in FoodQualityNews.com noted that Dr. John Rost, chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, stated “There is a great deal of research underway at this time, but the fact remains there is no readily available alternative to BPA for all the types of metal food and beverage packaging currently in use.” The likelihood of finding a substitute is literally “years away.”

Opponents of BPA seek to intimidate and marginalize credible researchers by condemning their ‘links’ to industry – accusations that are as specious as the non-existent ‘links’ of BPA to physical ailments – yet Rost’s safety concerns were underscored in a May 12 opinion piece in the New York Times which stated what scientists have been saying all along; “Swapping out BPA-free bottles, teething rings and sippy cups for substitutes whose dangers are unknown isn’t keeping our children safe."

Banning BPA would not only constitute a health threat, it would have a catastrophic economic impact on the provision of all food and drink packaged in metal or plastic containers. The assault on BPA is an assault on the vast bulk of humanity that depends on safe, protected containers.

The anti-BPA propaganda, all of which use the vague phrases that BPA “may” pose this threat, “might” pose that threat, “could” have some affect, “has been linked”, is baseless. It plays to the fears of those also read and hear an endless range of specious claims about chemicals of every description. That fear has a name, chemophobia.

Just as the anti-PBA propaganda continues, so do the alleged “studies” that link it to “possible”, “potential” hazards. Time and again, they prove to be an insult to the scientific method.

The sensible consumer knows that mere “exposure” does not constitute a threat or hazard. Every day we are “exposed” to all manner of things we safely eat and drink simply because the exposure is so small—parts per billion—as to constitute no hazard and because the body naturally excretes substances such as BPA on a daily basis.

It is my hope you will share this series and the information it contains to help stem this pernicious assault on the safest packaging on Mother Earth, made safer yet by the use of Bisphenol-A.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Bogus Sex Scares Used to Ban BPA - The BPA File, Part Five

By Alan Caruba

This first appeared here, in Alan's site, Warning Signs.

Over the course of the first four elements of The BPA File, we have documented a massive, global campaign to ban bisphenol-A, BPA, a chemical that has been safely used for more than a half century to protect metal and plastic containers for food and liquid against spoilage and the resulting hazard to health.

Every day, somewhere in the nation and the world, there is a constant repetition of lies regarding BPA They frequently target the fears of mothers of newborn infants, but also allege a wide variety of other health threats including a healthy sex life for men and women.

In the same fashion that the global warming hoax was spread and maintained by a campaign that asserted that everything from frizzy hair to blizzards was the result of a dramatic warming cycle that was either happening or predicted to happen, the effort to ban BPA uses the same technique.

The campaign is pursued by a coalition of environmental and consumer activist groups that depend on such scare campaigns to maintain funding and secure members who can be relied upon to ignore or reject the science that disputes such campaigns.

In May 2011, the Miami Herald published what read like a news release by the Natural Resources Defense Council that asserted “Bisphenal-A associated with obesity, lower sperm counts, and pre-cancerous changes in the body is found in the bodies of 90 percent of Americans. Now a study shows that you can halve your levels of BPA and other chemicals within three days through a change in diet.”

Three distinct “scares” are captured in this news release, all aimed a fears regarding health, but none of them reflect the fact that trace amounts of BPA is routinely excreted and thus poses no threat. It also fails to reveal that the “studies” always involve administering large amounts of BPA to laboratory mice in a fashion that does not reflect actual exposure.

The ultimate target of the anti-BPA campaign is the widespread use of plastic containers of food and liquids, along with its use to line the insides of metal cans for that purpose.

From its earliest origins, environmentalists have sought to ban chemicals in general even though plastic has transformed and enhanced life around the world. In the U.S., the average life expectancy in the last century rose from thirty-seven in 1900 to the current seventy-eight years!

Earlier this year, the German Society of Toxicology released a review of more than five thousand previous studies of BPA exposure that concluded that BPA “exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies.” Researchers concluded that BPA is neither mutagenic nor likely to be a carcinogen.

This, however, has not deterred the constant repetition of lies asserting that BPA is a health threat, nor a variety of efforts, including proposed State bans on the use of BPA. In April 2011, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a 14-page report that included three pages of intensely documented notes, that refuted efforts by the Maryland legislature to ban infant formula and baby food packaging that contains more than 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) of BPA.

“In public policy, bad ideas have an unfortunate tendency to spread,” said Dr. Angela Logomasini, PhD. Efforts in Maine, Maryland, and even in Congress to ban BPA portend a host of food-born diseases and even death if such bans continue to be enacted.

The source of these bans is the environmental movement that first came to public notice when they succeeded in getting DDT banned. The result has been a rise in malarial deaths in nations that followed suit and in the swift explosion of the bed bug plague in the U.S.

So vast have been the campaigns against the beneficial chemicals that protect human health that a word was coined to identify the phenomenon—chemophobia. It is an irrational fear of chemicals when, in fact, the human body is a chemical factory, producing chemicals for digestion, hormones, and others, all the while cleaning the body of chemicals it rejects.

Simple common sense suggests that parts-per-billion of any substance cannot possibly pose a risk or threat.

In his book, “The Precautionary Principle: A Critical Appraisal of Environmental Risk Assessment”, published by the Cato Institute, author Indur M. Goklany, wrote “In keeping with its origins of technological skepticism, the precautionary principle has also been increasingly invoked as justification, among other things, for international controls, if not outright bans, on various technologies, which—despite substantial benefits to humanity and, in some cases to certain aspects of the environmental—could worsen other aspects of the environment or public health.”

At the heart of environmentalism is the core belief that humans are endangering the Earth by the use of the remarkable technologies that have been developed in the past century.

That is why, by spreading lies about sperm counts, endocrine disruption, and non-existent threats to infants and adults via plastic and metal containers of food and liquids, the ultimate agenda to reduce the worldwide human population is central to the campaign against the use of BPA.

There are no feasible substitutes for BPA. Banning it will guarantee the people will die.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Alan’s work has a sense of timelessness about it, so anyone perusing these articles in the future will find them equally insightful as they were when originally written. For Alan's latest thoughts go to his blog, Warning Signs. For his past works go to The National Anxiety Center. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers.


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Scaring Mothers and All Others - The BPA File - Part Four

By Alan Caruba

In a revealing article in the April issue of The Atlantic, “Beyond BPA: Could ‘BPA-Free’ Products Be Just as Unsafe?” the effort to scare American consumers and others around the world comes full circle. In essence, the people and organizations behind campaigns to ban bisphenol-A (BPA) and anything made from plastic exist to frighten everyone about everything.

From the snake oil salesmen who pitched their phony medicines in the days of the early West to today’s purveyors of fear about a wide range of chemicals that protect health and extend life, the key element remains the same; they lie to enrich themselves.

As John Entine wrote in an article, “Scared to Death”, “When it comes to stories on so-called toxic substances, the public discourse seems infected by a malady worse than microscopic residues: chemophobia.”

“Webster’s defines chemophobia as the irrational belief that ‘chemicals’ are bad and ‘natural’ things are good. Labeling a chemical ‘toxic’ or a ‘contaminant’ is meaningless. Toxicity is a question of degree, exposure is different from effect.”

In plain terms, our bodies are designed to process and excrete all manner of things we breathe or ingest. Our bodies are, in fact, chemical factories that produce chemicals to protect and maintain their functions while, at the same time, removing what it does not require.

A massive campaign has been underway for several years to demonize bisphenol-A, BPA, a chemical in use for more than 50 years to line cans and plastic containers for the precise purpose of protecting their contents against contamination up to and including botulism, a lethal food-borne disease.

One might think that more than a half-century of its use without any evidence that it poses any harm would be sufficient to support its use, but liars who defame BPA are catering to other, more sinister agendas and fear is the means they use to advance them.

In a lengthy analysis available on Junkscience.com, it is noted that “BPA is one of the best tested substances” and has “been evaluated by regulatory bodies around the world” that found that:

• BPA is not carcinogenic or mutagenic

• BPA does not adversely effect reproduction or development at any realistic dose

• BPA shows weak estrogenic effects only at extremely high dose levels never reached in daily life

• BPA is efficiently ‘metabolized’ and rapidly excreted after oral exposure.

A primary target for the scare campaigns waged against BPA are women and, in particular, pregnant woman and mothers of infants. The product most targeted is plastic baby bottles.

Countless articles have been published in magazines, newspapers, and on Internet sites and blogs devoted to “environmental” topics and health issues that “report” various clinical studies all purporting that BPA represents a great risk to women.

Women unfamiliar with the scientific process are particularly vulnerable to reports that a small study of few females “may” or “could” or “might” reflect a connection between BPA and the alleged results, particularly if they are reported in medical journals that routinely publish such studies. The language of such studies is always couched in vague terminality such as indications of a “strong association” with the condition cited. In real life terms, this is meaningless.

Other reports exhibit both ignorance and bias such as a Huffington Post article that asserted “There’s no ‘Safe’ Plastic, Already!” Such a claim is absurd on its face. Lacking any basis in fact, the author claimed that “the latest science shows that plastics are really, really bad news” ignoring the fact that plastic containers of food and drink are ubiquitous. The claim itself sounds like it came from an ignorant child.

The sheer numbers involving plastic bottles should indicate their use is safe. For example, nine billion gallons of bottled water are sold every year in the United States. That’s 50 billion bottles. If they posed a health threat, it would be evident, but they do not, nor do the huge numbers of baby bottles, but expectant and new mothers are repeatedly told they should be avoided, especially by manufacturers who trumpet the news they do not use BPA.

A report in the Los Angeles Times claimed that eating canned food poses a health threat, repeating the tired and extensively disputed claims about BPA. The study, however, was released by two environmental groups that thrive on scare campaigns, the Breast Cancer Fund and the Silent Spring Institute. Out of hundreds of thousands of families in the U.S., the study was based on just five!

What is not reported is the fact that modern science can detect infinitesimal amounts of any chemical substance and it is the fact that they are so small that means they represent no threat. As always, it is the amount of exposure that determines hazard and mere “trace” amounts that can only be detected in a laboratory represent a phantom hazard.

In the end, telling new mothers and everyone else that they should not eat or drink anything from a can or bottle protected by BPA is, in fact, to put them, their babies, and everyone else at a far greater risk.

Editor's Note: Parts One through Three of The BPA File are available on the "Warning Signs" blog.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

(Alan's "BPA File" can also be viewed here.  I would like to thank Alan for allowing me to republish his works.  You may wish to view Caruba's Corner: Green Myths and Other Lies.  RK)

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Observations From the Back Row: 4-21-11

...
“De Omnibus Dubitandum”

Passivity leads to a policy of appeasement.
Appeasement leads to the attainment of someone else’s goals.

Global Warming must be true, Charles Manson believes in it. 'Everyone’s God and if we don’t wake up to that there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere. ‘If we don’t change that as rapidly as I’m speaking to you now, if we don’t put the green back on the planet and put the trees back that we’ve butchered, if we don’t go to war against the problem...'….On the environment, Manson said: 'Sooner or later the will of God will prevail over all of you. And I was condemned as the will of God.' 'We are all martyrs. Love is a martyr... I am a martyr. But I am also a victim. And I'm a performer……I'm both. I am everything. I am nothing.'

My Take – Yup….he’s qualified…..he’s a greenie. Crazy as a loon and vicious as a viper! Much of what you see being touted by animal rights and green activists was first put into practice on a national level by the first green government; Nazi Germany. Hurt an animal and Herman Gehring would have you dealt with in some unpleasant way. That is the problem with all the greenies from then until now; they love the world, its people they hate.

When I read comments from “normal” people who "know" that global warming is "real" after all that has come out I wonder at which Temple of the Church of the Warming Globe do they worship.

Do I believe in global warming? Yes, and I believe in global cooling also. Why? Because we have more than enough historical data to show that the Earth has warmed and cooled often in its history. That record also shows huge swings in temperature, and mankind didn't have a thing to do with any of it. What about the disasters they are predicting for today? Did those kind of disasters occur then when the temperatures where substantially higher than they are predicting now? There is absolutely nothing in the historical records or anywhere else to show that these things happened then! Why then should we believe they will occur now?

As for Ocean acidification... that is just more horsepucky to push an agenda of global governance. If it isn’t CO2, it will be ocean acidification. If it isn’t that it will be some other high sounding complicated claim that will be as equally un-provable as all the other horsepucky they have spewed out.

This issue is singular. Does mankind have the ability to control the weather in any way? The answer is no! So why should we believe that the minute amount of CO2 mankind puts into the atmosphere will alter the weather, especially since we know from the data that the amount of CO2 has fluctuated dramatically over the eons. And data also shows that the CO2 increases did not precede the warming periods, it followed them.

Anthropogenic Climate Change Was Always High Smelling! If you took all the cows in the United States and figured out how much greenhouse gas they emit, would you be able to sue all the farmers who own them? That interesting legal question came from Justice Antonin Scalia during Supreme Court oral arguments about whether an environmental case against five big U.S. power companies can go forward........“You’re lumping them all together,” he said of the five big power companies. “Suppose you lump together all the cows in the country. Would that allow you to sue all those farmers? I mean, don’t you have to do it defendant by defendant? … Cow by cow or at least farm by farm?” And if you can lump all the cows together and claim they fuel global warming, Scalia reasoned, “you can lump together all the people in the United States who breathe, I suppose?”

Analysis of The Nisbet Report — Part I, Doomed to Fail The data show quite clearly, no matter how one may try to parse it, that the debate over climate change is not David versus Goliath, but rather two Goliaths slugging it out in high stakes, big money power politics. According to data gathered by Nisbet, the leading environmental advocacy foundations spent upwards of half a billion dollars from 2008-2010, largely in support of a collective strategy expressed in the little-known but crucially important Design to Win strategy document for environmental philanthropy (here in PDF):

Are biofuel policies to help Mother Earth killing her most vulnerable children instead? U.S. and European policy to increase production of ethanol and other biofuels to displace fossil fuels is supposed to help human health by reducing “global warming.” Instead it has added to the global burden of death

Bull about bullying There is a lot of talk from many people about bullying in school. The problem is that it is all talk. There is no sign that anybody is going to do anything that is likely to reduce bullying. When politicians want to do nothing, and yet look like they are doing something, they appoint a blue-ribbon committee or go to the U.N. or assign some Cabinet member to look into the problem and report back to the president – hoping that the issue will be forgotten by the time he reports back. ….. When judges create new "rights" for bullies out of thin air, just as they do for criminals, and prescribe "due process" for school discipline, just as if schools were little courtrooms, then nothing is likely to happen promptly or decisively……When responsible officials are prevented from exercising power, then bullies exercise power.

My Take – I consider Thomas Sowell to be one of the finest thinkers and writers in the nation today because he can take seemingly complex problems and break them down into understandable terms. While dealing with one part of society’s problems he has, in this short article, addressed so many issues with so many insights at so many levels that the basic wisdom he uses can be applied at all of these levels.

The greenies have been allowed to trample on everyone’s rights because we fail to grasp what is right and what is wrong. Everything that was traditional wisdom has been replaced by conventional wisdom. Traditional wisdom became traditional because it stood the test of time. Conventional wisdom is nothing more than the latest philosophical flavor of the day touted by the so-called “best and brightest”, along with a corrupt media, government bureaucrats, elected officials and judges whose rulings are so irrational that their sanity, along with their integrity, should be called into question. When we adopt their concepts we have no historical background to help determine what will be the outcome for all of this “bold experimentation”.  And since they never have to pay the penalty for being wrong I have to ask; why do we listen to these people?

A triumph for sound science. Advocacy groups targeting plastic products made with bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates took it on the chin last week……The German science panel took a notable swipe at the critics’ central argument, the ultra-precautionary view that biological activity equates to harm. Certainly, BPA can impact the endocrine system, as can many substances, including foods such as tofu and nuts. “Explorative studies may identify a chemical-induced biological event, but this event many not translate into an adverse health effect,” the panel noted. “The long-term low-dose safety-studies on BPA demonstrate this.” (The American Magazine)

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax -

Of cabbages and kings,

And why the sea is boiling hot,

And whether pigs have wings."

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The American Council on Science and Heatlh, 2011: Week 12

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

Mini-strokes may cause major consequences
Transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) may be referred to as "mini-strokes," but there's nothing mini about the increased risk for stroke and heart attack which comes in their wake.

Expanded approval for shingles vaccine
Varicella zoster virus (VZV), the pathogen that causes chickenpox when first encountered in early childhood, can reawaken decades later and cause the painful skin eruption known as shingles.

New melanoma drug gets green light from FDA
Bristol-Myers Squibb's new melanoma drug Yervoy won approval from the FDA on Friday after a randomized clinical trial showed that patients with metastatic melanoma treated with the drug lived about four months longer than patients in the control group - although the median survival among the treated patients was only ten months.

Can Actos Prevent Diabetes?
After allegations were made linking the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) to an increased risk of heart attack, it was taken off the market in Europe, and its use was severely restricted here by the FDA.

ER cases higher among Ecstasy users
Known to invoke feelings of ecstasy, the eponymous illicit party drug, also known as MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), is the cause of an increasing number of medical emergencies, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

In defense of vaccines
ACSH staffers were pleased to encounter a variety of pieces defending vaccines as a vital public health practice. A book review in today's The New York Times, for instance, features an excellent work by informed consumer and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Seth Mnookin.

The EPA: More trouble than it’s worth and should be abolished, says Dr. Miller
Happy 40th Birthday, EPA, and may it be the last, says Hoover Institution Fellow and former ACSH trustee Dr. Henry Miller.

CSPI dyeing to link food coloring to ADHD
Like the mole in the whack-a-mole game, the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson just keeps coming back for a good whack in the head. This time, he has tried to resurrect the unfounded claim that food dyes trigger Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in kids who are predisposed to it - an issue first introduced in the 1970s by Dr. Ben Feingold.

My Take - Another day, another scare.  Their ability to recycle these things is uncanny.  Then again....there is another generation out there that didn't hear this unfounded scare before.  Another generation that can be misled and misinformed.  Another fallacious scare that can generate money and recruit ignorant protestors. 

Running and knees: perfect together
Yesterday, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a timely health story countering the popular notion that running poses a threat to knee health.

The X-Ray(t)ed Truth: Airport scanners pose no health threat
After the Transportation Security Administration announced the installation of new body scanners in airports last year, the mass media ran amok, hyping up the public's fears of excess radiation exposure and privacy violations.

Elderly excluded from many drug trials for treatments aimed at them
A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that 43 percent of 251 clinical trials investigating heart failure show evidence of ageism.

Biodiversity doesn’t feed people, but GM crops do
During a United Nations meeting in Bali to discuss a treaty on plant genetics, La Via Campesina, which according to an article in The Atlantic, is said to be an international farmers' movement comprised of 150 organizations in 70 countries, decided not to waste time addressing real agricultural problems like the rising cost of food, starvation in underdeveloped nations and the poor crop yields in certain areas.

My Take - If there was ever an obvious and hysterically insane cause this is it. Norman Borlaug saved untold millions of lives because of his Green Revolution which emphasized high yield crops, pesticides and fertilizers.....and the greenies vilified him for it. Now that he is dead; what is his legacy? He saved untold millions and untold millions more are surviving now and untold millions more will survive into the future because of his work.

Borlaug supported GM foods because they are necessary and no harm to society or the environment has ever been shown by their use. We have lost our minds when we listen to these madmen who would rather see millions die than use GM foods. Since their policies are going to kill untold numbers of children why should we believe them when they tell us to adopt their policies because "it’s for the children"? The legacy of the greenies is that untold millions have suffered and died; untold millions will suffer and die long into the future because of them.  This insane resistance to GM foods must be brought to a halt and the greenies need to be prosecuted!

Surprise: FDA tells Star Scientific its dissolvable tobacco lozenge not regulated under tobacco law
In a surprise ruling, the FDA determined last week that tobacco product maker Star Scientific Inc. is free to market and sell its Ariva-BDL and Stonewall-BDL dissolvable tobacco lozenges independent of FDA regulation since the products do not fall under the jurisdiction of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Study lauds BPA- and DEHP-free diet: But where’s the harm?
If it were up to The Silent Spring Institute and the Breast Cancer Fund, both activist groups disguised as environmental and health advocacy organizations, they would have you believe that the results of their newest study, with funding from the Passport Foundation, justify the need to convert to a non-packaged, organic food (and maybe raw?) diet.

My Take - I would like to recommend viewing Alan Caruba's BPA Series. This link will take you to the first three articles in his six part series.

FDA counters KV’s premature warning against compounding early-labor prevention drug
KV pharmaceuticals recently won exclusive rights to the marketing of the pre-term labor prevention drug they've branded Makena. Priced at a whopping $1500 per shot, the therapy may cost up to $30,000 per pregnancy since it usually requires 20 weekly injections to prevent premature labor in patients who have a predisposition to or a history of going into premature labor.

The (Minnesota) clone wars: Is there a scientist in the House (or Senate)?Sometimes politics and science do not mix, as illustrated by the GOP effort in Minnesota to push a so-called cloning ban that, as written, would bring the state's stem cell research to a halt.

Fewer lung cancer deaths among women, but smoking’s toll keeps rising
In a survey asking approximately 250,000 people about their current and past smoking habits, researchers learned that smoking causes half a million deaths annually in the U.S. - an increase from the prior estimates of about 450,000 deaths.

Seat belts, not plastic bans, save lives
Lung cancer deaths aren't the only fatality on the decline.

My Take - If the greenies and their allies irrational scares were accurate the risk charts would be upside down.  Why?  Because all of the things that they claim are so disastrous are at the bottom of the charts.  Pesticides are at the very bottom, yet you would believe from the hysteria they generate that people are dropping dead all over the place.  Since that, very obviously, isn't happening they resort to logical fallacies and claim that exposure can cause cancer in old age.  Since cancer is an affliction of the aged they can claim they are correct, yet cancer has been on the decline for decades and if you were to compare the demographics between the population one hundred years ago and the demographics of our population you would notice two startling and obvious differences regarding cancer.  There were very few people who lived to be over 65 (that is why they picked 65 as the retirement age for Social Security) and there were very few smokers; the two top cancer demographics.  When that is taken into consideration the cancer rate really drops. In point of fact; name their hysterical claims that didn't turn out to be a red herrings!

PSA tests: When screening may cause more harm than good
Over the past few years, prostate cancer screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test has received a lot of media flack while various health organizations and physicians struggle to outline specific guidelines for the exam.

My Take - For men over forty....go see your doctor every year.  As we age...twice a year. 

White-coat effect responsible for almost 40 percent of resistant hypertension
While sitting at the physician's office, some people may become anxious as they await their looming encounter with The Doctor.

HCV triumph: Taming the “silent killer”
For patients with hepatitis C, the only available treatment up till now has limited efficacy and debilitating side effects. But that is all about to change.

If there is a health scare today, the American Council on Science and Health will most likely have the answer by tomorrow; and for members it will appear in your e-mail. No effort on your part, except to read the answer. All that the ACSH is interested in are the facts and they are prepared to follow them wherever they lead. Who can ask for more?  Please Donate Now!

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The Big BPA Lie - The BPA File, Part Three

By Alan Caruba

This originally appeared here!

When I began this series about bisphenol-A, BPA, I instituted a Google Alert for Internet posts that mentioned it. From January through March it generated a report each day filled with notifications of newspaper, magazine, and Internet posts all denouncing BPA has a hazardous chemical that threatened the health of everyone from infants to adults.

More than one thousand posts were reported. Virtually all spread false information.

Such things do not happen by accident. They are the result of a concerted effort to defame BPA and they are indicative of a massive public relations effort. Serendipitously, on March 2nd the National Review published an article by Jon Entire, “Don’t Rush to Ban Chemicals” that revealed how public opinion is manipulated by the use of dubious “scientific studies” and the way most people, unschooled in science, do not realize that “one part per billion” of any substance poses no risk at all.

Entine cited a survey that found that “Canadians on average have about one part per billion of BPA in their urine, while Americans have twice that amount” noting that this “is not just meaningless, let alone news by any definition, but is part of the massive public relations campaign to get BPA banned”

“Labeling a chemical ‘toxic’ or a ‘contaminant’ is meaningless,” said Entine. “Toxicity is a question of degree; exposure is different from effect. Apples, bananas, broccoli, cabbage, citrus fruits, mushrooms, turnips, and many more foods contain occurring chemicals that are toxic—they cause cancer at large lifelong doses in laboratory rodents. Tofu is more estrogenic than BPA.”

Anyone who wants to learn the truth about BPA is advised to visit Junkscience.com, the website of Steve Milloy who has gained a solid reputation for debunking so-called “science based” fear campaigns. His data on BPA reveals that “there is no scientific evidence that BPA:

• Has ever harmed anyone despite 50 years of use;
• Acts as an endocrine disruptor; and
• Has any health effects at low doses;

Furthermore, the data debunks some of the most off-cited and false claims about BPA.

• BPA is not carcinogenic or mutagenic;
• BPA does not adversely affect reproduction or development at any realistic dose;
• BPA is efficiently “metabolized” and rapidly excreted after oral exposure

So where does the worldwide anti-BPA public relations campaign originate?

The answer to that has to be by inference, but many trace it to Fenton Communications whose founder, David Fenton, has left-wing associations and affiliations dating all the way back to the domestic terror group, the Weatherman, for whom he was a photographer.

In a lengthy profile on DiscoverTheNetworks.org, one learns that in 1982, he established Fenton Communications, specializing in advancing the agendas of “left-wing groups.” “One of Fenton’s most widely publicized achievements was his 1989 attack against the producers of Alar, a preservative (used on apples) that he erroneously characterized as carcinogenic.” The cost to American apple growers and distributors was catastrophic. It was deceptive.

The anti-BPA scare campaign is patterned on the anti-Alar campaign and a further link is found in the fact that two of Fenton’s longtime clients, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group are leaders in the anti-BPA campaign. Moreover, BornFree, a company that specializes in products that do not contain BPA, is also a Fenton client.

In the book, “The Fear Profiteers”, Fenton Communications was identified as having “played a key role in a growing number of health scare campaigns.” At the time the book was published, Fenton was linked to “scares about Alar and apples, swordfish, leaky breast implants, and a front group (a favorite PR ploy) Health Care Without Harm that put forth lies about the alleged, but unproven danger of phthalates; chemicals used to make plastic flexible products for IV bags, nipples, and children’s toys.

Suffice to say Fenton Communications is opposed to anything that has to do with plastic, no matter how useful and safe the product may be. BPA has been in use for over fifty years to line the insides of metal and plastic food containers, protecting against spoilage. More than 6,000 studies have been made over the years and none have demonstrated any hazard.

“If you have been scared about food or pesticides in the last ten years,” said ‘The Fear Profiteers’, “chances are Fenton Communications played a key role in provoking that fear. The fears just don’t ever stop. But they all have one thing in common—a lack of evidence and abundance of deceit.”

The anti-BPA propaganda that has been put in motion is multiplied by the countless journalists who simply repeat the lies, accounting for some of the most meretricious misinformation on a daily basis. This in turn is multiplied by the seemingly endless blogs and alleged “health” websites that repeat and repeat it, primarily targeting expectant and new mothers. Another favorite target are men who are told BPA affects their sex drive.

The problem for everyone, everywhere in the world, occurs when governments or entities such as the European Union ban the use of BPA despite overwhelming evidence of its safe use. That puts everyone at risk for the food-related illnesses that occur when containers no longer have the protection that BPA provides.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 Alan 's work has a sense of timelessness about it, so anyone perusing these articles in the future will find them equally insightful as they were when originally written.  For Alan's latest thoughts go to his blog, Warning Signs.  For his past works go to The National Anxiety Center. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers. 

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