Fetal Exposure To Common Chemicals Can Activate Obesity
I decided to report this article because we have just been studying exposure to chemicals and pollution and their chronic and immediate effects. However, this time the harmful thing doesn’t come from some sort of pollution or reaction, but instead is a chemical found in everyday plastics and pesticides. Also, even more scary, the exposure takes its toll while in the womb.
Frederick vom Saal, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has made it known to us that no longer can we associate obesity to just calorie-intake and how much someone eats and exercizes. For, vom Saal has uncovered that fetuses exposed to these certain chemicals can have their genes altered to make them more susceptible to obesity and disease later. Because the metabolism was affected, a person exposed can do the same activities as someone with a normal metabolic system but still become obese while the other remains thin.
Unfortunately, obesity doesn’t just cuase overweightness, either. Obesity puts people at risk for other problems as well, including diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
The chemicals that are doing this damage are called endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and one major one is bisphenol-A, which has been used in toys for years. California has recently put a ban on using this chemical, however the situation isn’t getting any better because the companies have sued, saying it has been used safely for years.
Vom Saal has obtained the majority of his information from testing lab mice, and after much study, has seen that the mice’s malfunction and pattern fits right in place with humans. He sums up the process in an annual meeting by saying:
The babies are born with a low body weight and a metabolic system that’s been programmed for starvation. This is called a thrifty phenotype, a system designed to maximize the use of all food taken into the body. The problem comes when the baby isn’t born into a world of starvation, but into a world of fast food restaurants and fatty foods.
We thought the fast food business and the food environment in America was the only problem leading to obesity, and what a big problem we thought it was. But with defected metabolisms on the rise and the same food environment, the problem now seems catastrophic, as it is now somewhat out of our hands. Obesity continues to climb and climb, and the nation’s health objectives for 2010 already look unreachable. Hopefully, more money gets put into this study and the government does what it needs to do to stop production of these chemicals and slow the issue of obesity before it becomes any worse, for right now with little knowledge on all this it seems inevitable, and may have been causing great numbers of obesities each year.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-16-02.asp
February 19, 2007 at 10:34 am
This article is under researched and draws wrong conclusions.
The European Union’s Food Standards Agency has investigated this issue for five years and had recently completely cleared the chemical concerned.
The EFSA has even allowed an increased use of this chemical. The announcement is here. http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press_room/press_release/pr_bpa.html
Please amend your blog.
February 20, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Your wrong
February 21, 2007 at 1:09 am
Good evidence that what we do really affects the next generation. When will humanity learn that we need to take responsibility for our actions? What we do is so far-reaching that we have to try and do something so we won’t ruin the future for our children.
No need to amend your blog. There are many different opinions out there and everyone says that their evidence is correct. You don’t need to research every single scientific repot on a certain topic in order to post on it.
The second guy who commented, who was he refering to? I’m a little confused over if he’s talking to you or the first guy.