debor015

               In the last decade, there has been rapidly growing public concern surrounding the use of certain types of plastic water bottles due to the discovery that some plastics leach potentially harmful chemicals.   Most notably, bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates have been shown to leach from polycarbonate as well as other plastics and in turn contaminate beverages.   In animal studies, both compounds have produced reproductive health problems.   What’s more, BPA is a known endocrine disruptor and can therefore interfere with metabolic and developmental processes.   That said, all of the negative attention on plastic bottles and their associated toxicants seems to have generated unnecessary confusion in the public as it relates to discerning which plastics are toxic and which are safe.   Below, I have composed a list to reduce this confusion.   By simply looking at the recycling cod...

                  The primary source of ethyl mercury, and the source which has gained the most attention as it relates to this chemicals role in public health, is through vaccinations.   For a number of decades, a compound known as Thimerosal has been used as a preservative in numerous types of vaccines.   It is this preservative which contains the ethyl mercury ion and is in turn the source through which most people, in particular children, are exposed.               The reason for incorporating a preservative into vaccine formulas in the first place is to prevent microbial growth in the event that a vaccine is to become contaminated; usually through repeated puncture of multi-dose vials.   Though Thimerosal has been used in various biological products, including vaccines, since the 1930’s, it was not until 1968 that the requirement...

                 Pesticides can be both synthetic as well as natural in origin.   Also known as botanical pesticides, natural pesticides are those which plants have evolved as a defense to ward off threatening organisms.   As a result, such pesticides can have a variety of different sources in the environment, depending on the species of plants from which particular pesticides originate, and the prevalence of those plants in the environment.   Aside from in nature, natural pesticides are also formulated in factories and marketed to the public for use in home gardens, farms, etc.   Consequently, sources of such pesticides are crops or plants which either naturally produce or have been sprayed with these chemicals, including much of the produce which winds up in our local markets.             While the term “natural” may have a positive ring...