Calling out endocrine disruptors

Nicholas Kristof takes up the cause

By Culinate staff

May 11, 2012

Once upon a time, the Food and Drug Administration declared that bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastics, was perfectly safe. By 2010, the FDA had decided that perhaps BPA was worrisome.

Now here we are in 2012, with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof chastising the FDA for refusing to ban not just BPA but its entire chemical class, known as endocrine disruptors. As Kristof pointed out, even if the feds are refusing to follow the science, the scientists themselves aren’t:

Scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences . . . said that his family had stopped buying canned food. “We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.”