BPA harms human health – and it's nearly impossible to avoid

+ a pivotal election for Columbia; how drugs know where to go US Edition - Today's top story: Decades of research document the detrimental health effects of BPA – an expert on environmental pollution and maternal health explains what it all means [View in browser]( US Edition | 17 June 2022 [The Conversation]( I vividly recall when I was pregnant and preparing for my first child, and I became aware of the push to avoid baby bottles and other consumer projects that contained the industrial chemical BPA. As a soon-to-be new mother, I felt overwhelmed at how difficult it was to know whether the products I was buying would be safe for my child. That was 15 years ago, and it’s stunning to look back on how little has changed. Many plastic products have been marketed as BPA-free over the last decade, but unfortunately studies have shown that BPA alternatives are not necessarily any safer. And BPA is still ubiquitous in everyday consumer products. The main thing that’s changed over the last 15 years is that researchers now know far more about the chemical’s potentially detrimental effects on human health. Now, in response to petitions and pressure from advocacy groups, the Food and Drug Administration is poised to reassess BPA’s health effects. Tracey Woodruff, an expert on the link between environmental pollution and reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, [details the deep and ever-growing body of evidence]( documenting BPA’s ability to interfere with reproductive processes, fetal and child development, metabolism and more. Also today: - [The Jan. 6 hearings are made for social media]( - [We taught an AI to do chemistry]( - [Legal spectacle of the Depp-Heard trial is return to historical norm]( Amanda Mascarelli Senior Health and Medicine Editor The chemical BPA has been shown to leach from food packaging products into our bodies. Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd/DigitalVision via Getty Images [Decades of research document the detrimental health effects of BPA – an expert on environmental pollution and maternal health explains what it all means]( Tracey Woodruff, University of California, San Francisco Due to increasing concerns over the health hazards posed by BPA, the Food and Drug Administration plans to reevaluate the safety of the controversial chemical for use in everyday products. Politics + Society - [The Jan. 6 hearings are tailor-made for social media – that doesn’t mean they’re reaching a wide audience]( Jessica Maddox, University of Alabama Today’s media landscape is a far cry from the days of Watergate. 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A pharmaceutical scientist explains why some medications are swallowed while others are injected]( Tom Anchordoquy, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus From tablets and patches to ointments and infusions, the best way to deliver a drug is the one that gets the right amount to the right place. - [A celebrated AI has learned a new trick: How to do chemistry]( Marc Zimmer, Connecticut College The AI AlphaFold can figure out the three-dimensional protein structure any string of amino acids will become. It has now exceeded its training by figuring out what makes some proteins glow. Arts + Culture - [What is Afrofuturism? An English professor explains]( Julian C. Chambliss, Michigan State University Even though Afrofuturist works are set in fictional worlds, they provide a blueprint for social, political and economic systems free from exploitation and oppression. 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