A Test Told Me I ’m Basically Made of Plastic. You Probably Are Too

I might like to think of my body as a thing of bone and blood and tissue and water, but as I recently learned, it’s also a thing of plastic—home to an alarming amount of plastic toxins known as bisphenols. Used to manufacture mostly hard, durable plastics—such as water bottles and takeout containers—bisphenols are often found in the company of phthalates, which are used to make more flexible plastics such as raincoat linings, vinyl boots, and packing tape. Both types of chemicals are known to be hormone disruptors, leading to numerous health problems, including early puberty, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and changes in liver function, as well as increased risk of certain cancers, particularly skin, breast, liver, and testicular.  [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] I learned about my plastic load thanks to Million Marker, a company that offers a simple, mail-in urinalysis that measures the sample’s concentration of both types of chemicals. The news was reasonably good when it came to phthalates: I am below the 20th percentile in the category of smaller, low-molecular weight forms of the chemical, and just above the 50th percentile in the high molecular weight form. I can live with that. But as for bisphenols, I was literally off the charts—at the 100th percentile—for bisphenol A (BPA) one of the most common forms of the chemical. I was in the safer 20th percentile for bisphenol S (BPS), another common form. ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Environment Source Type: news