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Short Stuff: All about BPAs · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for a day. So
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: this is short stuff about the beware of the pas.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: We're talking about BPAs specifically, well BPA, which is how
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: do you pronounce that.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Josh, I'm going with this phenol or bisphenol.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hey, bisphenol A.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: There are other bisphenols apparently which I didn't know, and
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: apparently you know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: None of these are good.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: For you, even though the FDA is like, it's fine
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: in the amounts that you're getting it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Stop being so uptight, everybody. Yeah, they're used in all
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: sorts of plastics, polycarbonate in particular. But that stuff shows
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: up everywhere. It can be in the stuff that lines
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: tin cans, it can be in your dental work, it
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: can be in contact lens, storage containers, baby bottles used
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to be. I don't think it is anymore, but it
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: was everywhere. It's also now still today. The greatest exposure
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: that people get on average is from holding receipts thermal
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: paper receipts.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Oh interesting, those.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Are coded with BPA, so just be aware of that.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I saw a study that said just holding one for
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: ten seconds exposed you to unsafe levels of BPA.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: You know, many years ago when we lived in Los Angeles,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: And it's the jokes Emily still laughs at to this
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: day because it's just very me very sardonically. Chuck was
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: we left a Blockbuster video and it was like Princh, Princh,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: and they did that thing where there was a ticker
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: tape of like three feet of receipts each you know,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: connected by a little tiny piece of paper, and he
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: handed them to me and I just went, thank you
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: for the receipts. And Emily thought that was the funniest
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: thing ever, and she still says.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: It to this day.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see being in the right place, in
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the right frame of mind and just finding that awesome.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, really stoned at Blockbuster.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Sure do you remember when you rented?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, who knows.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: But now that I don't feel so bad now that
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I know that those things are loaded with BPAs.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I don't want those in my pocket.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: No, you don't. And the reason why we're even like
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: talking about BPA is all thanks to a geneticist named
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: doctor Patricia Hunt, who was studying the ovaries of mice
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: back in the late nineties, nineteen ninety eight. That was
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: her jam. She was not looking for BPA, she was
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: not studying BPA at all, but BPA came and found her.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Essentially, Yeah, she saw these chromosotal errors start popping up.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: They went from two percent to forty percent in these
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: mice that she was studying in the control group, and
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: that you know, there was miscarriage, there were birth effects
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: in these little baby mice. It's all very sad. And
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: she ran some more tests and she was like, you
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: know what, all of these cages and water bottles that
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: these mice are drinking out of have BPA in them,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: and I think that's where it's coming from. So she
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: swapped that stuff out with non BPA stuff. Everything returned
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: to normal, and she was like, I think I found
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: something really bad here.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Everybody, Yeah, she did.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: She also really started to examine what BPA did. Disrupted
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: fetal development. The eggs of the fetus that had its
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: development disrupted, that fetus's eventual babies those were also disrupted
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, she was like, I think something
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: is really bad here. And what she turned up is
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: that BPA acts as an endocrine disruptor, meaning it mimics
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a hormone in our body, which does all sorts of
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: stuff because our hormones are very very well precisely timed,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and you go over here and do this, you go
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: over here and do that. And if something shows up
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: on mass and is like we're gonna do all of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: this at once, there's all sorts of catastrophic things that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: can happen to the human body.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: And in this case, in the case of BPA, what
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: it really does is affect estrogen, and estrogen has a
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: huge effect on a lot of stuff. I think it
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: can affect the behavior of more than two hundred genes
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: and almost every organ and tissue in the body can
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: be affected by estrogen. So this was a big deal
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: at the time. There were a lot of initial reactions
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: of like, you know, we're not sure how bad this stuff.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Is for you.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: We're not going to do anything right now, Like the
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: evidence is like not really conclusive because we're not mice
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: and so we're not necessarily going to experience the same
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: health effects. And again these limits are like the amount
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: that we're getting shouldn't harm it, Like, you know, children
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: and adults.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Right, that was wrong. It turns out that the limits
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: that we were being exposed to were considered harm or
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: are considered very harmful. Now, but what's something weird, Just
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: a little thing to kind of put aside. It actually
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: turns out that low doses of BPA have worse effects
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: than larger doses of BPA.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's weird.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I didn't see anywhere that that was explained, so I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: came up with my own explanation. It's three stooges syndrome,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: which is how remember mister Burns had every disease, but
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: none of them were affecting them because they were all
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: trying to get through the same door at once. I
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: think that's what happens when you have a bunch of BPA.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: They all get stuck trying to get through the same
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: door at the same time, and it doesn't affect you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: like a little bit does, which can make it right
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: through the door.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: All right, doctor Clark, We're going to take a break
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: and ponder that, and we'll be right back with more
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: on BPAs.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I gotta say I'm very impressed.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you, But I feel like I should say I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: am not a doctor, and you really shouldn't listen to
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: me with any medical stuff. Whatsoever.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: But I called you a doctor.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Oh well, then I'm a doctor.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: So, in the United States, the FDAs, who was in
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: charge of regulating the BPA use, and in twenty ten
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: they did a four year review of BPA studies which
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: resulted in twenty fourteen.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Basically saying, you know what.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: We're upholding our previous no observed adverse effects level label.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: As long as you don't get more than five milligrams
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: of body weight per kilogram of body weight per day,
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: you'll be fine.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that that is a level that
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: most people are never exposed to, right.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Well, that's what they say.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, we should talk about some of the things though,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I know you mentioned a few things.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: But let me see here.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Type two diabetes potentially in adults, insulin resistance in children
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and adults, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity and high pretension in
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: children and adults.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of terrible stuff. And again this is
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: not to mention like the pre term births, developmental abnormalities,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: like all sorts of different stuff that has to do
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: with reproduction, breast cancer, tumors, like all of these things.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Like it used to be, like, like you said, we're
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: not mice. And you know that whole settled science bs that,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like the merchants of doubt used to put out like
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: just shamelessly, like if you look at meta analyzes of
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: studies about BPA and its effect on the human body,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: like you said, that's what comes up. It's obviously you
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: can never prove anything like without a shadow of a doubt.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: That's just how science works. But it's essentially to the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: point where you, the individual person can feel pretty good
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: about not wanting BPA anywhere near you.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. For sure.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: Europe, of course is leading the way in front of us.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: In April, just a few years ago, in twenty twenty three,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: they're at DA which is the European Food Safety Authority,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: said all right, we've seen the research and I think
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: they they lowered their safe level a lot. I think
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: to point two what is that to point two nanograms,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: which is two billions of a gram or point two
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: billions of a gram per day for like, you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: a human body. So that's that's way lower than ours, is.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and it's even lower than what their previous
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: one was. Their previous one was still way lower than ours.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: So ours was five milligrams per kilogram. I think it's
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the same still, their old one was four micrograms per
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: kilogram of body weight, so now it's their Their new
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: revised safe level is twenty thousand times lower than their
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: own previous safe level, ten billion trillion ish times lower
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: than are our safe level in the United States. And
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: when they when the European Food Safety Authority basically decided this,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: there were all sorts of like, like, you know, is
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: this true? Is this right? You know? And of course
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: industry was pushing back on it. The only paper I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: found that was critical of it an academic journal paper
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: that was critical of their their methods of data collection.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, funded this. It was funded by the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: American Chemistry Council. So they're like, it seems pretty like
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the EFSA has over the years or since April twenty
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: twenty three, continued to issue defenses of its decision and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: not like we decided, so shut up. They're like, we decided,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and here's why we decided. Here's all the data we
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: did this on. So it seems pretty legitimate that they're like,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: this is way worse than we have been taking it,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and especially in the United States.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well if you go to the FDA website today
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: date April thirtieth, twenty twenty six. It says FDA's current perspective,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: based on its most recent safety assessment, is that BPA
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: is safe at the current levels occurring in foods. Based
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: on FDA's ongoing safety review of scientific evidence, the available
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: information continues to support the safety of BPA for the
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: currently approved uses in food containers and packaging. But if
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: you don't buy that, and I don't, I don't think
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: doctor Josh, does you need to look for a label
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: that says BPA free that will indicate that the plastic
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: does not have buy cheese.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Bis spinal Is that what you said? He did bis
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: spent all A.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: But like I said, it could have bispon al F
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: or bispon all S or something else, and that may
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: be just as risky.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Here's how you remember that. It's like a bisk made
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of polyphen hal Yeah.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love bisc That's a shame.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So if you're like, Okay, BPA free, great, give
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it to me. It turns out, like you said, there's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: other bisphenols. Bisphenol F and S are now used as substitutes.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: They're not nearly as studied as BPA has been. But
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: essentially the studies that are coming back are like, yeap
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: just as bad as BPA does all the same things.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: So essentially the focus on BPA itself should have been
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: expanded from the outset to bisphenols, not just BPA. And
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: so yeah, now there's BPF and bps all over the place.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And if you think that you what you have is
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: BPA free, is probably still has bisphenols in it.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Why don't they just find something else?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, they did, it's called glass. But the problem is
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: glass stainless steel containers. They often come with plastic tops
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and lids, and you have to be careful with that too,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: because even if the lids metal, it may still have
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: a plastic liner on the top of it, and that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: probably has at least some sort of plastic associated with
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: it that could be getting in whatever you're drinking out of.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: But do you have to have abys final to have
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: plastic at all?
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I guarantee if you really looked into it,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it's like half a cent less, right, something safe?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And that's your answer, you know, Yeah.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: One day we're going to get there, Chuck, I hope
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: we're still alive to see it. But one day we're
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: going to get there where people actually take care of
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: other people and we all care about one another, we
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: all act like it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: We're going to get there, that's right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: And in the meantime, you and I and every other
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: member of the Stuff you should normally is going to
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: try and be squeezing through that same door together.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Also in the meantime, Short Stuff is out. Stuff You
• 12:39
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• 12:41
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• 12:44
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