Nemesis of The Graduate

Those of you who saw the movie from the 1960's called "The Graduate" with Dustin Hoffman most likely remember the one word of advice he was given, Plastics. This was the starting point for the food industry to convert almost every possible glass container into a plastic substitute.

Plastics contain certain chemicals that mimic the activity of estrogens. This next story shows how this chemical can influence what comes in contact with it. A young Scientific researcher was testing estrogen on different substances in test tubes.  The results startled the young researcher when there was also estrogenic activity in the test tubes without any added estrogen. This was totally unexpected.

He asked an older researcher how this could have happened. The older researcher asked the young scientist if he used glass or plastic test tubes. Plastic was his answer. The older researcher suggested he run the same experiment again using glass test tubes this time. Sure enough, no estrogenic activity without added estrogen. The plastic test tubes leached chemicals into the test sample and this created an estrogenic effect. This is an ever expanding toxic chemical source in today's environmental mine field. These plastic chemicals are now found everywhere in the world, even in the middle of the ocean and on the highest mountain tops. (PCBs)

Liquids are best purchased only in glass containers. It is questionable if tablets and capsules are affected by this leaching plastic process. Remember that it is the accumulation over time from many sources that presents a problem.