Plastic (40 page)

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To persuade colleagues
: Douglas M. Surgeonor, "Reflections on Blood Transfusion,"
American Journal of Surgery
148 (November 1984): 563.

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The new technology revolutionized
: Author interview with Gary Moroff, American Red Cross, November 2009.

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The U.S. Army employed
: Author interview with Pawlak. In 1959, Walter sold Fenwal, the company he founded to market his blood-bag system, to medical supply giant Baxter Healthcare.

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One of PVC's big selling points
: "Why Doctors Are Using More Plastics,"
Modern Plastics
(October 1957): 87.

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Doctors at B. F. Goodrich's
: Markowitz and Rosner,
Deceit and Denial,
173–75.

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European researchers found evidence
: Ibid., 171.

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"
a plastic coffin
": Quoted in ibid., 192.

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Industry howled
: Ibid., 223.

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another line of research
: This line of inquiry actually went back to the 1940s, with scattered reports that some substance migrating out of various plastic films could induce tumors in rats. In the mid-1950s, for instance, a group of Columbia University researchers happened onto disturbing findings about the newly introduced plastic films, such as Saran Wrap, which Dow promoted as "the film of one hundred and one uses." In a use that surely wasn't on Dow's list, the researchers had wrapped lab rats' kidneys in plastic film for a study on hypertension drugs. To their surprise, several years later, they found that seven of the rats had developed malignant tumors at the sites where their kidneys had been wrapped. In later studies, they found that tumors sprouted in high rates in rats exposed to a number of different plastics, including Saran Wrap (made of polyvinylidene chloride, a cousin of PVC), PVC, polyethylene, Dacron, cellophane, and Teflon. It wasn't clear to the researchers what was causing the tumors or whether the rats' disease signified a risk for human health. In the 1970s, the FDA's concern that vinyl chloride could leach out of PVC led it to turn down Monsanto's request to make PVC bottles for liquor. Sarah Vogel, "The Politics of Plastic: The Social, Economic and Scientific History of Bisphenol A," PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 2008.

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Johns Hopkins University toxicologists
: The story of their discovery comes largely from author interviews with Rudolph Jaeger, September 2009, and Robert Rubin, October 2009. See also R. J. Jaeger and R. J. Rubin, "Plasticizers from Plastic Devices Extraction, Metabolism, and Accumulation by Biological Systems,"
Science
170 (October 23, 1970): 460–62; R. J. Jaeger and R. J. Rubin, "Contamination of Blood Stored in Plastic Packs,"
Lancet
2 (July 18, 1970): 151; R. J. Jaeger and R. J. Rubin, "Some Pharmacologic and Toxicologic Effects of Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate (DHP) and Other Plasticizers,"
Environmental Health Perspectives
(January 3, 1973): 53–59.

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bags could be as much as 40 percent
: Tickner et al., "Use of Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate."

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The additive is not atomically bonded
: Indeed, leaching is a virtual certainty given the architecture of plasticized PVC, according to toxicologist Bruce LaBelle. Author interview with LaBelle, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, September 2009. Over time, the normal forces of atomic attraction pull the long PVC molecules together, which eventually squishes the DEHP out. That process is creating a crisis in the modern art world, where conservators are struggling to find ways to contend with plastic artworks that are weeping plasticizers or off-gassing unpleasant smells. Sam Kean, "Does Plastic Art Last Forever?"
Slate
magazine, July 1, 2009.

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"
Humans are just a little plastic
": Victor Cohn, "Plastics Residues Found in Bloodstreams,"
Washington Post,
January 18, 1972.

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After taking a hard look at DEHP
: As one 1978 review of the literature put it: "there is no evidence of toxicity from the use of PVC plasticized plastics in medical practice. The major components of plasticized PVC have been examined over a span of years and each passing year sees a confirmation of the lack of toxicity ... Considering all the factors of cost, convenience, and safety, it appears that plasticized PVC containers continue to have a valuable place in medical practice." W. L. Guess, "Safety Evaluation of Medical Plastics,"
Clinical Toxicology
12 (1978): 77–95. See also Naomi Luban et al., "I Want to Say One Word to You—Just One Word—'Plastics,'"
Transfusion
46 (April 2006): 503–6.

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poison is "a quantitative
": Ernest Hodgson and Patricia Levi,
A Textbook of Modern Toxicology
(New York: Elsevier, 1987), 2.

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The dose makes the poison
: Pete Myers and Wendy Hessler, "Does the Dose Make the Poison?"
Environmental Health News,
April 30, 2007.

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Theo Colborn began developing a different theory
: The story of Colborn's work and evolving understanding of endocrine disrupters is told in Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers,
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story
(New York: Dutton, 1996), 12. See also Vogel, "Politics of Plastic"; Gay Daly, "Bad Chemistry,"
OnEarth
(Winter 2006).

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as one reporter observed
: Daly, "Bad Chemistry."

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"
something important was lurking
": Colborn et al.,
Our Stolen Future,
12.

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"
hand-me-down poisons
": Ibid., 26.

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the drug DES
: Recent animal studies have suggested third-generation effects among DES exposed mice, though the risks to human DES grandchildren are not yet clear. Wargo et al., "Plastics That May Be Harmful," 8.

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she organized a meeting
: Daly, "Bad Chemistry"; Vogel, "The Politics of Plastic," 238–40.

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"
I was scared to death!
": Daly, "Bad Chemistry."

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They dubbed it "endocrine disruption
": In hindsight, said Ted Schettler, a leading researcher in the field, the choice of phrase was "a little unfortunate." It focused attention on the hormonal pathways affected by synthetic chemicals. "But there are many other signaling pathways that are important for normal physical development or function." More recent research has begun looking at the effects of chemicals on neurochemical messengers in the brain, among others. Author interview with Schettler, science director, Science and Environmental Health Network, October 2009.

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Its hallmarks included
: Vogel, "The Politics of Plastic," 244.

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The first Wingspread conference
: Colborn et al.,
Our Stolen Future,
253.

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Today, the number may be
: Japanese regulators have identified seventy endocrine disrupters (Daly, "Bad Chemistry"); the figure of one thousand comes from John Wargo, "Pervasive Plastics: Why the U.S. Needs New and Tighter Controls,"
Yale Environment
360 (November 16, 2009).

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by mimicking natural hormones
: Colborn et al.,
Our Stolen Future,
72.

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bisphenol A
: The chemical is also present in PVC.

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the bonds holding these long molecules
: Author interviews with Fred vom Saal, University of Missouri, Columbia, October 2007, and Bruce LaBelle. See also Vogel, "Politics of Plastic"; Frederick vom Saal et al., "An Extensive New Literature Concerning Low-Dose Effects of Bisphenol A Shows the Need for a New Risk Assessment,"
Environmental Health Perspectives
113 (August 2005): 926–33 and Wargo et al., "Plastics That May Be Harmful."

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two possible ways to cause static
: Wargo et al., "Plastics That May Be Harmful," 22.

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it makes sense
: Author interview with vom Saal.

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Hormones are produced
: Colborn et al.,
Our Stolen Future,
32.

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a known neurotoxin
: Long-term occupational exposure to the chemical may have subtle neurological effects, and a recent report issued by the American Cancer Society, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Cancer Institute included styrene among twenty potential carcinogens deserving of more investigation. Reuters, "Report Targets Twenty Possible Causes of Cancer," July 15, 2010.

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thirty-seven-billion-dollar global market
: BCC Research, "Plastic Additives: The Global Market," June 2009. Synopsis accessed at
http://www.bccresearch.com/report/PLS022B.html
.

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the recent experience of German researchers
: Author interview with Martin Wagne, Department of Aquatic Ecotoxicology, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, May 2009. See also M. Wagner et al., "Endocrine Disruptors in Bottled Mineral Water: Total Estrogenic Burden and Migration from Plastic Bottles,"
Environmental Science Pollution Research International
16 (May 2009): 278–86. Italian researchers reported similar results: B. Pinto et al., "Screening of Estrogen-Like Activity of Mineral Water Stored in PET Bottles,"
International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
212 (March 2009): 228–32. Leaching of chemicals from PET isn't entirely surprising. Typically, a tiny fraction of the plastic—about 1 percent—consists of molecules that never completely polymerized. These shortened daisy chains, known as oligomers, might be only a few units long. Because they're smaller than polymer molecules, oligomers can sneak out of the plastic matrix, carrying with them any chemical additives or manufacturing residues.

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one possibility is antimony
: Ted Schettler in e-mail to author, November 2009. George Bittner, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas, contends that the reports of hormonal activity in polycarbonate, vinyl, and PET are "the tip of the iceberg." Bittner claims to have tested hundreds of common plastics and additives in cell studies and has yet to find any that don't show the capacity to mimic hormones. However, as of mid-2010, his work had not been published in any peer-reviewed journals.

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there's no way for consumers to know
: That's true even with cosmetics, which are subject to strict labeling requirements. One study analyzed seventy-two different cosmetic and personal-care products; phthalates weren't listed on the labels of any but were found to be present in fifty-two of the products. Schettler, "Human Exposure," 137.

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they are odorless
:In 2008, the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice tried to pin down the source of that chemical smell by analyzing new vinyl shower curtains. The analysis, done by independent labs, suggested the smell was not produced by a single chemical but by a mix of dozens. Indeed, the researchers found new vinyl shower curtains contained as many as 108 different volatile organic chemicals, including DEHP and another phthalate, DINP. "Some of these chemicals cause developmental damage as well as damage to the liver and central nervous, respiratory, and reproductive systems." Stephen Lester et al., "Volatile Vinyl: The New Shower Curtain's Chemical Smell," Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, June 2008.

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nonmedical deployment
: Schettler, "Human Exposure"; Wargo et al., "Plastics That May Be Harmful"; CERHR, "Monograph." The link to flip-flops was in a recent report published by Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, "Chemicals Up Close: Plastic Shoes from All Over the World," 2009, which found phthalates in seventeen of twenty-seven shoes tested. For a review of studies looking at exposure through food, see Jane Muncke, "Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Compounds Via the Food Chain: Is Packaging a Relevant Source?"
Science of the Total Environment
407 (August 2009): 4549–59. Much of the food-related research has been done in Europe, and it's not clear how well it applies to American markets.

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Once the compound enters the bloodstream
: Author interviews with Shanna Swan, University of Rochester, October 2007 and October 2009. Also Mark Schapiro,
Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007), 44. The exact mechanisms by which DEHP does damage are not entirely clear, but studies have shown that the chemical can suppress fetal cells that synthesize testosterone; knock out pathways between nurse cells and germ cells that foster the creation of sperm; and reduce production of another growth factor critical in building the reproductive tract. See K. L. Howdeshell et al., "Mechanisms of Action of Phthalate Esters, Individually and in Combination, to Induce Abnormal Reproductive Development in Male Laboratory Rats,"
Environmental Research
108 (2008): 168–76.

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researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency
: National Research Council,
Phthalates and Cumulative Risk Assessment,
2008, 5. Also see L. E. Gray Jr. et al., "Perinatal Exposure to the Phthalates DEH, BBP and DINP, but Not DEP, DMP or DOTP Alters Sexual Differentiation of the Male Rat,"
Toxicology Science
58 (December 2000): 350–65.

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female rat pups
: B. J. Davis et al., "Di-(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate Suppresses Estradiol and Ovulation in Cycling Rats,"
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology
128 (1994): 216–23, cited in Wargo et al., "Plastics That May Be Harmful," 40.