Endocrinologists agree: Plastics are killing us

Plastics [previously] is a dirty business, from the toxic chemicals used to make the stuff to the lingering effects of our daily exposure to the ubiquitous compounds that wrap out foods, encases our technical gear, line our cars, and make up those toys so beloved by teething infants.

We live in a plastic world [the hippies were right on that one], surrounded by the chemical creations of Koch Industries, DuPont, and countless Chinese companies.

And now some of the world’s leading physicians are sounding the alarm.

Endocrinologists have issued a scathing indictment of chemicals in plastics and their manufacture as powerful disruptors of the body’s critical chemical regulatory systems essential to life itself [previously].

From the Endocrine Society

And, they caution, there are no “safe” exposures to these chemicals and the effects, which can be subtle, evolving over time through our constant daily exposures, starting with exposures in the womb.

And now a new report from the Endocrine Society lays out the dangers and calls for immediate action, both for ourselves and for those to come.

The document, Plastics, EDCs & Health: a Guide for Public Interest Organizations and Policy-makers on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals & Plastics, notes:

Many plastic additives are known to interfere with hormone functioning and are, by definition, endocrine disrupting chemicals. This publication provides clear and extensive evidence of the human health impacts of many chemicals in common plastics. The health impacts of these widely used chemicals can be profound and life threatening. Cancers, diabetes, kidney, liver, and thyroid impacts, metabolic disorders, neurological impacts, inflammation, alterations to both male and female reproductive development, infertility, and impacts to future generations as a result of germ cell alterations are the consequence of many EDC exposures, EDCs that are integral to plastics.

This chart from their report lists some of the diseases linked to EDC exposure:

Again, there are no safe exposure levels to this omnipresent chemical malefactors.

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Via Endocrinologists agree: Plastics are killing us — eats shoots ‘n leaves