Are Plastic Products Causing Breast Cancer Epidemic?
Are plastic products, such as plastic food and drink containers, causing the current breast cancer epidemic? The EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) may soon find out. On Oct. 5, 1998, EDSTAC announced that they are "moving toward" launching a screening program that will evaluate health and environmental effects of endocrine-disrupting synthetic chemicals used in thousands of common products, from plastics to pesticides.
The connection between plastic and breast cancer was first discovered in 1987 at Tufts Medical School in Boston by research scientists Dr. Ana Soto and Dr. Carlos Sonnenschein. In the midst of their experiments on cancer cell growth, endocrine-disrupting chemicals leached from plastic test tubes into the researcher's laboratory experiment, causing a rampant proliferation of breast cancer cells. Their findings were published in Environmental Health Perspectives (1991).
Again in 1987, a research team headed by David Feldman of the Stanford University School of Medicine also discovered that plastics, such as the plastic giant jugs used to bottle drinking water, had similarly contaminated their experiments. They reported their findings in Endocrinology (1993).
Spanish researchers, Fatima and Nicolas Olea, tested metal food cans that were lined with plastic. The cans were also found to be leaching hormone disrupting chemicals in 50% of the cans tested. The levels of contamination were twenty-seven times more than the amount the Stanford team reported was enough to make breast cancer cells proliferate. Reportedly, 85% of the food cans in the United States are lined with plastic. The Oleas reported their findings in Environmental Health Perspectives (1995).
Some environmental and health activists question why the EPA waited years to act. They dispute the EPA's claim that "Science has only recently come to understand the possible threats posed to public health from endocrine disruptors."
In July of 1991, government officials representing EPA, National Institutes of Health, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attended the Wingspread Conference in Racine Wisconsin for the specific purpose of discussing endocrine disruptors with leading researchers. At the end of the conference they signed a consensus statement in which the threat of endocrine disruptors to the environment and public health was clearly recognized.
