Posted By: angelic4296
Yikes...PVC contains potentially harmful chemical? - 04/19/11 05:50 AM
I wasn't sure if this should be in Health & Hygeine or Housing & Accessories, so Mods/Admin, please feel free it move it if need be....
So, I subscribe to Glamour magazine. This month, I came across an article about environmental chemicals in very common household items that could be potentially dangerous to us, and as their research showed, also potentially animals. There was a particular point mentioned about PVC plastic, stating that it contains a chemical called TBT (Tributylin) that is now being thought to contribute to obesity. A professor named Dr. Bruce Blumberg from the University of California, Irvine did a study in which mice were exposed exposed to TBT and it was found that they gained extra fat cells. Furthermore, when female mice who were pregnant were exposed to this chemical, their babies were 15% bigger than the control group. I did some digging online and found some articles, including Dr. Blumberg's actual research article, which was published just in November 2010 I believe in the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. I tried getting through the article, but I had alot of trouble understanding alot of the science behind it, so I also found some articles in which he was quoted talking about what he terms "obesogens" and also his mice experiment (I DESPISE animal research, I really do....). Here's what I came across:
His actual journal article:
http://blumberg-serv.bio.uci.edu/reprints/blumberg-2011.pdf
An article that talks about Dibutylin, which is from my understanding similar in structure to TBT, but has a different function, yet is also found in PVC plastics, which has been shown to "interfere with the natural ability of human and animals cells to control important immune responses and inflammation." This article was published in 2008 and uses as a source another article published by Dr. Blumberg in 2007.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/e...rs-inflammation
Another article, in which Dr. Blumberg is also quoted, that talks about TBT, which is used to create PVC plastics.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7940105/can_chemicals_be_making_you_fat.html
There's a bunch more results that pop up on Google using Dr. Blumberg's name and terms like "PVC" and "TBT." It just got me thinking since so many of us, if not most of us, use PVC-coated cages. Now, I totally understand that there's a variety, in fact probably tons of types of PVC plastics and it would take more in-depth research to the type of PVC plastic coating that is on our cages and what chemicals might specifically be present in it, but as I said, it made me ponder the effects in terms of our gliders' potential for obesity, their inflammation responses and immune systems, and their hormones and endocrine systems, all of which the articles mention as being effected by these chemicals, both for non-breeding gliders and also our breeding females and their joeys, since research was conducted on pregnant mice and showed results.
Maybe someone who is more scientifically-minded than I could read that first article and decipher it? What does everyone think, should we be concerned about the PVC-coating on our cages in light of the research that has been coming out in the last few years???
So, I subscribe to Glamour magazine. This month, I came across an article about environmental chemicals in very common household items that could be potentially dangerous to us, and as their research showed, also potentially animals. There was a particular point mentioned about PVC plastic, stating that it contains a chemical called TBT (Tributylin) that is now being thought to contribute to obesity. A professor named Dr. Bruce Blumberg from the University of California, Irvine did a study in which mice were exposed exposed to TBT and it was found that they gained extra fat cells. Furthermore, when female mice who were pregnant were exposed to this chemical, their babies were 15% bigger than the control group. I did some digging online and found some articles, including Dr. Blumberg's actual research article, which was published just in November 2010 I believe in the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. I tried getting through the article, but I had alot of trouble understanding alot of the science behind it, so I also found some articles in which he was quoted talking about what he terms "obesogens" and also his mice experiment (I DESPISE animal research, I really do....). Here's what I came across:
His actual journal article:
http://blumberg-serv.bio.uci.edu/reprints/blumberg-2011.pdf
An article that talks about Dibutylin, which is from my understanding similar in structure to TBT, but has a different function, yet is also found in PVC plastics, which has been shown to "interfere with the natural ability of human and animals cells to control important immune responses and inflammation." This article was published in 2008 and uses as a source another article published by Dr. Blumberg in 2007.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/e...rs-inflammation
Another article, in which Dr. Blumberg is also quoted, that talks about TBT, which is used to create PVC plastics.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7940105/can_chemicals_be_making_you_fat.html
There's a bunch more results that pop up on Google using Dr. Blumberg's name and terms like "PVC" and "TBT." It just got me thinking since so many of us, if not most of us, use PVC-coated cages. Now, I totally understand that there's a variety, in fact probably tons of types of PVC plastics and it would take more in-depth research to the type of PVC plastic coating that is on our cages and what chemicals might specifically be present in it, but as I said, it made me ponder the effects in terms of our gliders' potential for obesity, their inflammation responses and immune systems, and their hormones and endocrine systems, all of which the articles mention as being effected by these chemicals, both for non-breeding gliders and also our breeding females and their joeys, since research was conducted on pregnant mice and showed results.
Maybe someone who is more scientifically-minded than I could read that first article and decipher it? What does everyone think, should we be concerned about the PVC-coating on our cages in light of the research that has been coming out in the last few years???