Plastics and Your Children’s Health — Ashley Koch Functional Nutrition and Wellness

When it comes to bringing plastics into your home, your children’s health should be top of mind. Plastics are becoming a global issue due to the dangers they pose to human health, the expansive volume the modern world uses and disposes of on a daily basis, and the growing waste that is taking over our landfills and oceans. Based on the health hazards, now is a great time to consider how your family can reduce your reliance on plastics.

What makes plastics toxic?

Plastics are toxic due to the presence of materials that contain estrogenic activity. These materials act like hormones and disrupt the body’s normal function (NIH, 2018).

It’s not just BPA that is dangerous to your health.

While BPA is found in a large volume of consumer products, the dangers are not limited to products that contain BPA. We must not be fooled by the false sense of security created by “BPA-free” products. Based on the growing public awareness of BPA, many manufacturers have made the switch to BPA alternatives like bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF). These substitutes found in everyday consumer products like plastics present the same health issues that make BPA harmful to ourselves and our children (Rochester, 2015). In reviewing 455 food packaging plastics primarily known to not contain BPA, it was determined that most of them still contained the hormone disruptors that are harmful to our health. Did you know that exposing plastics to stress like boiling water, sunlight, and microwaves only makes these chemicals leach further from products (Yang, 2011)?

How are they harmful to your health?

• Plastics have been connected with several health issues, including early puberty in females, lower sperm count in males, obesity, issues with the reproductive organs, and increased rates of reproductive cancer.

• Fetuses, newborns and children are especially sensitive to products containing estrogenic activity.

• Plastics can permanently alter the structure and function of human cells (Yang, 2011).

• Plastics are correlated to a decrease penis size and negatively impacted the testis ability to descend and the size of the scrotum (Swan, 2005).

• The chemicals present in plastic can impact your child’s sexual expression (Patisaul, 2006).

• Scientists also believe that the chemicals we are exposed to through plastic impact many metabolic diseases, such as obesity (Charisiadis, 2018).

How much has your family been exposed to the harmful chemicals present in plastics?

To understand the extent of exposure to toxin present in plastics, we take a look at the detection of BPA in the general population, as this is one of the most widely studied chemicals in the world of plastics. The urine of over two thousand Americans over the age of 6 was reviewed, and BPA was detected in over 90% of the population. One can conclude that given the prevalence of plastics, the majority of the population is being exposed to an extensive list of chemicals present in plastic on a regular basis (Calafat, 2008). According to the review of over four hundred plastic consumer products, the majority of these products (including BPA free products) leached chemicals that contain hormone disrupting characteristics.

Micro-plastics were found floating in 80% of bottled water products.