Real spookiness this Halloween

All-hallows' eve. Brahhhaahhaa.

In a way, Halloween owes its existence to the Celts, ancient people who lived in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, over 2000 years ago. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st, as it marked the end of summer, the harvest, and the beginning of the long, dark, winter. Their religious beliefs were rooted in pagan traditions: they believed that on the night before their new year, the bounds between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and the ghosts of their dead could roam the earth. These ghoulish visitors misbehaved, making livestock go off feed, damaging crops, or getting into other mischief related to the natural world. To divert and deter the ghouls from pursuing their misdeeds, the Celts’ priests built bonfires, in which the people, garbed in costumes of animal heads and skins, burned crops and animals in sacrifice.

By the 800s, Christianity had spread throughout the traditionally Celtic lands and Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. (Boniface (and other popes) established a number of holidays to coincide with the traditional pagan ritual days as a way of replacing the pagan events with church-sanctioned holidays.) The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it became All-hallows Eve, eventually giving way to Halloween.

Halloween has of course become a time of dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating, and over-indulging in candy. I remember fondly from my childhood coming home with pillowcases stuffed with candy, some change, and a few disappointing but healthy contributions (apples and oranges).

So, this brings me to todays thoughts: Last week I tripped across a map on CNN. It was part of a CNN Special Report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the obesity epidemic. And it was truly scary. I urge you to look at it here. It starts with a map in 1985, and you can advance the map to 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2004, and 2006. Each map graphically depicts our growing waistlines, by color-coding states according to the percentage of adults who are deemed obese (30 pounds overweight for a 5’4” individual). In 1985, only eight states (the chunkiest of all) had 10-14% of their adult populations meeting the definition of obese. Just six years later, four states were in the 20-24% range, and 35 states were in the 10-14% range. Jump to 2004 and the six skinniest states had 15-19% of their populations in the obese category, and the nine fattest states had over 25% of their population qualifying as obese. By 2006, only one state (my own home, Colorado) was still in the 15-19% category, and 32 states were over the 25% level.

Part of our ever bulging bodies need to be credited to lifestyle choices, for sure. We eat more, and do less physically than ever before. But scientists have also found that the chemicals we are exposed to may be influencing our weight gain! Bisphenol A (the plasticizer found in polycarbonate containers and as a liner for food cans, and which is produced at over 7-billion pounds per year) has been shown to alter gene function in lab animals in such a way that exposed off-spring get fatter than their non-exposed relatives. Scientists think some other endocrine disrupting chemicals may also act similarly. And these are very low-dose exposures to a chemical that the Center’s for Disease Control found in most individuals they have tested for it.

Plastic Problems Part 2

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is now used to line food cans — even when the food inside is certified organic. In fact, a series of independent tests performed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that "over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods" contained BPA, including in acidic products, such as tomatoes, and fatty foods, such as infant formula. Acidic foods or high fat foods tend to leach out more of these chemicals than other foods stored in the same type of container. BPA is not only implicated in infertility and birth defects, but also in breast and prostrate cancer.

A couple of EWG's findings:

Of all foods tested, chicken soup, infant formula, and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. Just one to three servings of foods with these concentrations could expose a woman or child to BPA at levels that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.

For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals.

And, more on phthalates: These chemicals are widely found in personal care products, ranging from cleansers and soaps to cosmetics and perfumes. In this use, they are intended to keep products going on smooth. But, some people suspect that phthalates in these products are a major source of phthalate exposure for women, and in August, 2005, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published research showing that phthalate exposures in pregnant women correlated to a decrease in "anogenital distance" their in baby boys. The amount of phthalates these women showed was equal to the amount regularly found in about 25% of our population! Anogenital distance is the space between the anus and the genetalia, and though these baby boys appeared fairly normal, decreases in anogenital distance are associated with a number of male sexual development problems later in life.

What can you do? Well, when it comes to cans, if you open one and see that white plastic coating lining it, immediately call the manufacturer's 800-number customer service line and tell them you don't want to buy products that come in cans lined with bisphenol-A containing plastic. And, again, when possible, purchase products that are packaged in glass or unlined cans.

As for phthalates and personal care products, check the Skin Deep database that EWG has developed to learn about what the personal-care products you use have in them, and then select the safest alternatives listed on the Skin Deep database.

Plastic Problems

Recently I did a two-part podcast with KMO at C-Realm on backyard poultry and toxic burden. During the interview I mentioned some of the potential health issues associated with plastic water bottles. I particularly mentioned bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in hard plastics, such as the polycarbonate water bottles that so many people carry today.

BPA is an endocrine disrupting chemical, implicated in a variety of things that are troubling us. The evidence is especially strong that it causes fetal toxicity, which can result in either miscarriage or still birth. It's also connected with reduced conception, usually caused by low sperm counts or abnormal sperm production in men and/or menstrual disorders in women, and several developmental disorders and birth defects. Two that I heard a lot about while attending a conference* this year are chryptorchism (undescended testicles), and hypospadia, a condition in which the opening in the penis is along the shaft, rather than at the tip. Hypospadia, the now the second most common congenital birth defect, having increased in frequency 300% in just the last 30 years.



After hearing the podcast, one of KMO's listeners sent an email asking, "So does this go for all plastic water bottles (like the kind used for mountain bikes too?) I also send my kids to school with water bottles, so I wonder what a good substitute for those would be. I guess metal since glass could get broken."

I decided to answer the listener's question here:

First, as far as BPA goes, it is in polycarbonate plastics (which has a number 7 in the recycle mark). That includes most of the plastic water bottles like bikers use. The other common plastic bottles (that soda, juice, and water usually come in) are a softer plastic than polycarbonate. Known as PETE (for polyethylene terephthalate, and recognized by number 1 in the recycle mark), these plastics don't contain BPA, but do contain phthalates, another plasticisizing chemical that is associated with many of the same problems as BPA.

What can you do? Reduce your exposures to these chemicals (and especially your children's exposures). How? Start by choosing glass and steel when those options are available. For example, for hot or cold drinks that you carry with you, try stainless steel containers that aren't resin coated on the inside. Check Kleen Kanteen.

Some years ago, I also consciously switched from using plastic for most food storage, to using lots more glass for food storage. Ball jars (the canning jars of yore) are great for storing left overs of all kinds in the fridge — you can see what's in them, and they really do seal well. The tops can be reused hundreds of times when the food is in the fridge (unlike when they are actually used for canning purposes). I use them for storing almost every kind of food imaginable, including cheese, meat, and raw veggies. If you look in my fridge, about the only plastic you normally see is bread in its plastic bag.

Coming tomorrow: Part 2 of what you can do to reduce exposures!

* The conference was co-sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and Environment and the School of Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. The Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health, was held in January, 2007 at UCSF.