Bisphenol A And Phthalates

Bisphenol A is a difunctional building block of several important plastics and plastic additives. Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, concerns about the use of bisphenol A in consumer products were regularly reported in the news media in 2008 after several governments issued reports questioning its safety, causing some retailers to remove products made of it from their shelves. Additionally, phthalates, are esters of phthalic acid and are mainly used as plasticisers (substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity). They are primarily used to soften polyvinyl chloride. This book examines both bisphenol A and phthalates discussing and presenting numerous topical and related data on these compounds and their uses, health effects and environmental risks.

This book explores the safety of phthalates and bisphenol-A in everyday consumer products. The American Chemistry Council represents the leading business of chemistry. Products supplied by the chemistry sector are essential in manufacturing, agriculture, energy, transportation, technology, communications, health, education, defence, and virtually every aspect of our lives. Basic industrial chemicals are the raw materials for thousands of other products including plastics, water treatment chemicals, detergents, pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. Recent media attention has created public concern and confusion about some of these chemicals - a family of compounds called phthalate esters, and another compound bisphenol-A. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a synthetic sex hormone that's been linked to serious diseases at low doses of exposure. Studies conducted on laboratory animals and cell cultures have linked low doses of BPA to obesity, diabetes, thyroid disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer and other illnesses. BPA exposure is widespread and has been found in 95% of Americans tested including in breast milk. New research related to this field is presented in this book.

"This book examines the negative impacts of plastic and explores different biotechnological interventions to plastic pollution. It also generates an awareness of the use of plastics and its impact on the environment, human health, and other ecosystems"--

This book, Environmental Health Risk - Hazardous Factors to Living Species, is intended to provide a set of practical discussions and relevant tools for making risky decisions that require actions to reduce environmental health risk against environmental factors that may adversely impact human health or ecological balances. We aimed to compile information from diverse sources into a single volume to give some real examples extending concepts of those hazardous factors to living species that may stimulate new research ideas and trends in the relevant fields.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic compound for hardening and clearing polycarbonate plastics. BPA is mainly classified as an estrogen-like endocrine-disrupting chemical. In the last decade, attention has arisen in scientific communities that it is not safe to use this chemical in mainly polycarbonate plastics. Exposure to BPA starts in prenatal period, which is the critical period for its toxic effects on different organs. Throughout this book, the readers will obtain information on the effects of BPA on different systems. They will also get information on the prenatal and postnatal effects of BPA. We believe that readers will get qualified scientific knowledge and a general overview of the toxic effects of BPA exposure and its consequences from this book.

This book mainly focuses on advances made over the past 10 years regarding the exposure, metabolism, transformation, toxicity, molecular mechanism and biomarkers for emerging chemicals in humans. A hot topic in the field of environmental health, the term “emerging chemicals” refers to a class of compounds that are frequently encountered and potentially harmful to the natural environment and human health. They are also the preferred target substances for future environmental control measures. The list of emerging chemicals includes pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDC), persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and nanomaterials. However, the environmental and health hazard characteristics of many emerging chemicals remain unclear. The aim of this book is to stimulate further research in new directions by providing novel and provocative insights into the exposure assessment of and potential mechanisms regarding emerging chemicals in humans. It also offers a state-of-the-art report on recent discoveries concerning emerging chemicals and where the field is headed.

An award-winning scientist, in this urgent, thought-provoking and meticulously researched book, shows how chemicals in the modern environment are changing--and endangering--human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale.