Shocking- research has found bottled water to contain more than 24,000 chemicals, many of which are endocrine disruptors
Modern living constantly faces serious health threats due to the process of manifacturing food and drinks. Yet, there is a growing number of consumers who ask for plastic products which do not contain the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), so it positively affected the production of water, drinks and food.
However, a recent German study has dicovered plastic contaners of food and beverages to contain thousands of dangerous chemicals, as well as an endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) called di(2-ethylhexyl) fumarate, or DEHF, which is absolutely uncontrolled.
Two experts from the Goethe University Frankfurt, Martin Wagner and Jorg Oehlmann, together with a reseraching team from the German Federal Institute of Hydrology, found this devastating truth due to the tests which searched for the presence of EDCs, conducted on 18 different bottled water samples.
They found 24,520 different chemicals in the bottled water products subjected to the tests, via bioassay work and high-resolution mass spectrometry.
Yet, the most concernng issue was linked to DEHF, which is a plasticizer chemical commonly used with the aim to provide flexibility to plastic bottles.
Reports suggest that this chemical was found to be the most common culprit which leads to anti-estrogenic activity. Apart from trace amounts of over 24,000 other possible harmful chemicals, DEHF was indicated to be the only EDC able to encourage this activity.
The published extract of this study stated that 13 out of the 18 bottled water samples examined showed “significant” anti-estrogenic activity. Moreover, 16 of the 18 samples tested have been found to impede the androgen receptors in the body by 90 %.
Furthermore, apart from DEHF, the rest 24,520 chemical traces were also discovered to have negative effects, as they significantly harm the hormonal system.
Namely, thousands of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals which are used in the production of plastic have been shown to be material- unsafe.
Yet, what this researching team did not identify is that DEHF is specifically anti-androgenic, meaning that it is not the only chemical that has a detrimental effect on the ednocrine system. Apparently, there is one, or more, other chemicals in bottled water which impedes the chemical signaling system of the body, which is in charge of the production and use of hormones in the body.
“We confirmed the identity and biological activity of DEHF and additional isomers of dioctyl fumarate and maleate using authentic standards,” report the researchers. “Since DEHF is anti-estrogenic but not anti-androgenic we conclude that additional, yet unidentified EDCs must contribute to the antagonistic effect of bottled water.”
Therefore, while the findings regarding DEHF are revolutionary, it has been concluded that there is a need for further research, important in order to identify the types of chemicals leeching from plastic into the food and beverages we consume.
We cannot expect that this research will be conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or any of the other three-letter government agencies, sp such independent scientific teams will again need to play the major role in it.
“This work is a ‘tour de force’ in identification of endocrine disruptors in packaged materials,” says Bruce Blumberg from the University of California, Irvine, as quoted by Chemistry World.
This type of analysis, he adds, “will be very important for our future understanding of what chemicals we are routinely exposed to and which of these pose hazards of being endocrine disruptors.”
Meanwhile, we should avoid plastic containers as mush as possible, and use steel or glass instead, in order to prevent all kinds of health threats.
Sources: www.naturalnews.com
