BPA, or Bisphenol A, is a chemical that is made up of phenol and acetone. It is used to make substances that are clear, resistant to heat and electricity, and unshatterable. BPA is used in many household items such as plastic, DVD’s, and car parts. The FDA has approved the use of BPA but it is still harmful. BPA is found in the urine of 93% of people over the age of six in the US. When BPA is found in your urine it means that you have a higher chance of getting prostate cancer. Respectively, most people with prostate cancer show signs of having more BPA in their body than the average person. The BPA disrupts the body’s system of producing, secreting, and distributing hormones. When the hormones don’t function properly the DNA in the cell can be altered and cause cancer.
Prostate cancer is the second most deadly type of cancer in the US. Men usually get it over the age of fifty but once you are diagnosed with prostate cancer it is normally too late to help. The warning signs only occur in the latter stages of the cancer development. Many researchers are now looking into this threat of prostate cancer since it became one of the leading causes of death. The FDA still does not recognize it as a carcinogen even though research has clearly presented BPA as a leading factor in prostate cancer. A test at University of Chicago showed a trend showing that people with prostate cancer, on average, have higher BPA levels. If BPA is banned by the FDA, prostate cancer will not have its chance to take thousands of lives of fellow Americans.
I did not do my current event on an article, but instead on Sage Sunier’s poster on BPA from the symposium at Sarah Lawrence College. I really liked her poster and the way it was presented. It went from an introduction to more specific in order from top to bottom. It was really easy to follow what she was talking about when she was presenting her poster. Also, whenever I had any questions, she was able to answer them. The poster provides a lot of information too that really proved her point that BPA is bad for your health and should be banned.
I am so glad that you attended the event and got so much out of it. I hope to have Saige's poster on display in the school sometime soon. Her research has certainly made clear for me some strong evidence that BPA is linked with cancer. It makes me want to throw out all my plastic containers at home and replace them with glass ones!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is who has never heard of BPA and the controversy behind it before, I feel that Remi did a great job summarizing and explaining what he learned from Saige. Remi makes sure to emphasize just how common BPA is in everyday items, using statistics and studies to paint a picture of how harmlessly we view a silent killer. Finally, I like how Remi focused on prostate cancer, highlighting how high levels of BPA in the bloodstream have been connected to higher risk for prostate cancer.
ReplyDeleteLike I said earlier, I have never heard of BPA or its affects before I read Remi’s report. He has educated me on how dangerous something as common as a plastic water bottle can be. I found his statistic on how BPA could be found in the urine of 93% op people in the U.S. over 6 particularly fascinating. I also never knew how deadly prostate cancer was, or how by the time it is diagnosed it is likely too late for the patient. Overall I learned a lot about the correlation between prostate cancer and BPA from reading the report.
I feel like the report would be more complete if it included a reason for why BPA is still legal and what it would take to make it illegal. I also feel that Remi could have made it just a bit clearer how BPA is in countless household items from canned food to receipts. Remi did a fantastic job educating me on the existence and effects of BPA, these criticisms are just minor complaints that don’t really take away my enjoyment of the paper as a whole.