Plastics chemicals cause infertility and health

Plastics chemicals cause infertility and health

An infertility crisis on Spanish pig farms has been linked to endocrine-disrupting plastic chemicals also found in human food products, in a study conducted by researchers from the University of Zaragoza and published in the journal Scientific Reports in May.

The study marks "the first time that the correlation between reproductive failures and compounds migrating from plastic materials [has been] studied and demonstrated," lead researcher Cristina Nerin said.

Semen bags contaminated

In the spring of 2010, sows on 41 separate pig farms across Spain abruptly stopped bearing young or began producing smaller-than-normal litters. Researchers examined both the sows and the semen that had been used to artificially inseminate them but found no abnormalities or evidence of disease and no evidence of feed or water contamination.

They did eventually discover, however, that all the semen used in inseminating sows on the farms had been originally refrigerated in bags that came from the same company.

Nerin, an expert in food packaging, was called in by the bag-making company to solve the mystery. Her preliminary tests identified several chemicals in the bags that have been linked to endocrine (hormone) disruption and reproductive problems, most notably cyclic lactone and BADGE.

Cyclic lactone is commonly used in the adhesives used to seal food bags, such as bags of potato chips or sliced meat. It was among the chemicals found at highest concentrations in the semen bags. BADGE, a byproduct of the notorious chemical bisphenol A (BPA), was also found at high levels.

BPA and BADGE are both found in high levels not just in hard plastics but also in the linings of 95 percent of food and beverage cans on the market. BADGE is also found in household dust.

Both cyclic lactone and BADGE have been shown, in prior studies, to migrate from packaging into food. A recent study by the New York State Department of Health found BADGE in 100 percent of urine samples collected in the United States and China. Read more