"Toby" <kymarto@...> wrote:

>That's the stuff. Here are a few links to sites that have questions about
>the safety of Bisphenol-A.

On a related note, any thoughts on the materials from which the mouthpieces
themselves are constructed?  I believe this was discussed recently either in
this group or on the SOTW boards.  Someone, somewhere mentioned that hard rubber
pieces actually contain petroleum-derived chemicals.  Of course, plastic
mouthpieces are ultimately petroleum-based.  I would hope that the plastic used
in mouthpieces is non-reactive inside the human body - those tooth grooves in
the top of my mouthpiece mean that a small amount of the stuff went in my mouth.

And just this week I've read a whole lot of (probably alarmist) stuff about
plastic leeching into food in the microwave, etc.

Keeping my fingers crossed,

--Joe C.

----
Joe Castleman       --     gyrofrog@...
Gyrofrog Communications -- http://www.gyrofrog.com

Hi Joe,

We are constantly taking pollutants into our bodies, and they liver and
kidneys generally do a pretty good job with them. If you're worried about
petroleum based chems then you'd better stop breathing ;-)

Many plastics are safe, but a number of them contain these so-called
endocrine disrupters which are nastier than "normal" toxic pollutants
because extremely small doses of them can affect endocrine balances and
development of the endocrine system in irreversible ways. They interfere
with very delicate regulatory processes which control other, grosser,
metabolic processes. There has been a growing awareness of these problems
and a couple of very good books published on the subject in the last few
years. One is called "Our Stolen Future"--I forget the author. The other is
"The Feminization of Nature" by Deborah Cadbury. Both are chilling reading,
and, one hopes, overstated. But the jury is still out.

One thing that has been worrying scientists lately are the preciptiously
dropping sperm counts globally over the last fifty years. The averge male of
today has a sperm count (of well formed and motile sperm) that is fifty
percent lower than that of the man of 1950 and dropping. There is no
quibbling with these figures, as the numbers are reliable. Many are now
beginning to suspect that chems that act as estrogen mimics are compromising
the developing endocrine systems of children and causing these irreversible
effects. The number of testicular cancers and genital malformations is also
on the rise, among other things. Some studies seem to point to this class of
chems as the likely culprit. It's not only a question of bisphenol A and
nonyl phenol (I believe it is called) which are used as plasticizers to make
plastics flexible, PCB's, which are extremely toxic and used in large
quantities globally have the same effect. Incomplete combustion of plastics
(as in trash burning) produces large quantities of dioxins--another chem in
this class. They are extremely resistant to breakdown and are found in
increasing concentrations throughout the world, including Antarctica.

They are not water soluble so they don't flush out of the body, instead they
get stored in body fat. This means that they get highly concentrated in body
tissues as you move up the food chain--another reason I'm glad I'm a
vegetarian. It also means that the systemic load of these chemicals
increases with age, which is not good at all.

The food industry has a large investment in epoxies and polycarbonate
plastics, both of which contain bisphenol A. Most food cans are epoxy lined,
and polycarbonates are used in bottles for liquids, etc. Dental plastics are
polycarbonates, so you may have them in your mouth 24/7. Studies are being
done, of course, to try to determine the safety of these chems (you'll find
a number of abstracts on the net), and some studies seem to contradict each
other. There is a lot of controvery on these points, but I feel that it is
best to play it safe. Too many chemicals deemed safe over the past fifty or
sixty years have later proven to be quite dangerous.

In general harder plastics tend to be more inert. The plasticizers used to
make them more pliable are often the xeroestrogens we are talking about.

Generally if plastics have a chemical taste in the mouth it's best to stay
away from them. That means something is leaching out. What is hard to tell
unless you know the composition of the plastic in question. but the fact
that the endocrine disrupters can cause long-term effects at extremely low
dosages, though they are not necessarily prima facie toxic makes them
especially dangerous IMO.

Sorry if this is a bit OT, but I feel it is important.

Toby
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Castleman" <gyrofrog@...>
To: <MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 7:48 AM
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Safe material (in general)


> "Toby" <kymarto@...> wrote:
>
> >That's the stuff. Here are a few links to sites that have questions about
> >the safety of Bisphenol-A.
>
> On a related note, any thoughts on the materials from which the
mouthpieces
> themselves are constructed?  I believe this was discussed recently either
in
> this group or on the SOTW boards.  Someone, somewhere mentioned that hard
rubber
> pieces actually contain petroleum-derived chemicals.  Of course, plastic
> mouthpieces are ultimately petroleum-based.  I would hope that the plastic
used
> in mouthpieces is non-reactive inside the human body - those tooth grooves
in
> the top of my mouthpiece mean that a small amount of the stuff went in my
mouth.
>
> And just this week I've read a whole lot of (probably alarmist) stuff
about
> plastic leeching into food in the microwave, etc.
>
> Keeping my fingers crossed,
>
> --Joe C.
>
> ----
> Joe Castleman       --     gyrofrog@...
> Gyrofrog Communications -- http://www.gyrofrog.com
>
>
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>