A. Endocrine disruptors are naturally occurring compounds or man-made chemicals that mimic or block naturally occurring hormones like estrogens (the female sex hormone) and androgens (the male sex hormones). Several thousand chemicals are known or suspected to have estrogenic activity (EA). Examples of endocrine disruptors with EA that leach from plastics commonly discussed in current news articles are bisphenol A, phthalates and alkyl-phenols.

• Bisphenol A is used to make a very common type of “hard and clear” plastic called polycarbonate (PC) plastic.
• Phthalates are often added to make plastics more flexible or to manufacture a type of hard and clear plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) plastics.
• Alkyl-phenols are used as additives to plastic, soap and paper products.

A. This type of endocrine disruptive activity is by far the most prevalent. While estrogens (the female sex hormones) occur naturally in the body, many scientific studies have shown that significant health problems can occur when chemicals are ingested that mimic or block the actions of these female sex hormones; the fetus, newborn, or young child is especially vulnerable. These health-related problems include early puberty in females, reduced sperm counts in males, altered functions of reproductive organs, obesity, altered behaviors, and
increased rates of some breast, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancers.

A. Virtually all modern plastics including widely used products such as plastic water and baby bottles, plastic food containers, plastic bags, dental materials, the linings of metal food cans and wine/beer fermentation vats, toys and many other plastic products.

A. Chemicals with EA leach from plastics into the water and food we consume. Almost every plastic has EA except for PlastiPure’s plastics, which are certified to be free (EA-Free) of any chemicals that leach detectable amounts of EA.

A. Scientific journals and thousands of articles have reported that chemicals having EA can produce early sexual maturation, altered uterine, ovarian and breast functions, altered prostate, testicular and sperm functions, increased rates of some breast, ovarian, testicular and prostate cancers, infant and child growth rates and learning disabilities.

A. The FDA has well-defined tests for cell death, toxic and carcinogenic effects for chemicals that can contaminate foodstuffs or other products, but it does not have approved tests for hormonal effects.

A. No. There are hundreds of harmful chemicals that leach into the food and water we consume every day. Bisphenol A and phthalates are just two of these harmful chemicals. The current legislative attempts to solve this problem by banning chemicals one at a time is not an effective solution because thousands of chemicals used in plastics exhibit EA. Companies responding to short-term market forces by simply eliminating a few of the many problem chemicals from their
plastic products (BPA-Free or Phthalate-Free marketing slogans) will have to re-engineer their products when consumers realize that the substituted products marketed as BPA-free and/or phthalate-free still have EA. In fact, the re-engineered products may have more EA than the original products.

A. PlastiPure has spent over 7 years and millions of dollars developing the technology, intellectual property and patents to produce plastics that are free of EA. Through our research, we have been able to identify thousands of chemicals that cause this problem and to avoid, replace and not re-introducethese into our formulations and production methods. PlastiPure’s intensive focus on all aspects of plastic production has resulted in formulations and processes that use the existing supply chain. For example, when using PlastiPure resins, a processor’s infrastructure and procedures can usually be used with key modifications from PlastiPure to ensure an EA-free
product. In most cases, the physical characteristics of the EA-free end products are not distinguishable from existing plastic products.

A. They shouldn’t, or at least not exclusively, because it does not accurately describe many publications that show harmful effects of BPA on the developing fetus and young organisms at very low BPA concentrations. The validity of the “no effect” conclusions of the NTP brief are seriously questioned by many scientists with international reputations.

A. Yes. The chemical compositions of almost-all plastics sold today were formulated from 1920-1999 with no knowledge or consideration of how those chemicals might interact with the human estrogen receptor. PlastiPure’s advanced technologies use patent-protected state-of-the art advances in cell/molecular biology, endocrine physiology, polymer chemistry and polymer engineering.

A. This problem can be solved by providing a solution to manufacture and produce EA Free plastic products. PlastiPure has developed plastics that do not leach any of thousands of chemicals having EA, as measured by the most sensitive assays currently available.

A. Other companies have not had the extensive scientific expertise in a set of otherwise unrelated fields (cell/molecular biology, endocrine physiology, polymer chemistry and polymer engineering) necessary to develop the intellectual property to solve this health-related problem. Other companies have spent
millions to produce a marketing solution to develop plastics that do not
contain one or two widely publicized chemicals (BPA, phthalates) that have EA, rather than a comprehensive health related solution. And these companies are spending millions to market these plastics as the solution that still release other chemicals having EA.

A. The plastics industry is a $400 billion industry. It would be much less expensive if the plastics industry made systematic changes now versus incremental changes over decades. Most of PlastiPure’s EA-free resins cost only pennies more than comparable EA-containing plastic resins, if both are produced in the same quantities. Similarly, using Plastipure’s resins and manufacturing processes adds only pennies to the final plastic product, if manufactured in the
same numbers as existing EA-releasing products.