In recent days at Meteored.mx, we introduced you to the new environmental reform carried out by the Government of Mexico City, putting into effect a law that prohibits plastics for the marketing, distribution and delivery of single-use plastic or disposable Styrofoam. One of the main reasons is the decrease in generating garbage, since these wastes contaminate a large part of the center of our country.
Now, researchers from the largest higher education institution in Mexico, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and its deputies, the Atmospheric Science Center (CCA) and the Institute of Biomedical Research (IIBO), published, how the use of plastics is correlated with cancer disease, specifically breast cancer.
Without a doubt, this is one more reason that involves our health, to motivate us to stop using plastic, starting with single-use plastic and progressively with the rest of this material that is totally present in our lives.
Scientific Finding for Global Health
According to what was published by Gaceta magazine. For the first time in the world, UNAM researchers were able to correlate the presence of bisphenols and phthalates (chemicals found in the vast majority of plastics) in Mexican patients with breast cancer.
A new reason to discourage the use of plastic and laminated products. #PontePumaPonte https://t.co/frXO4AUa9W
– UNAM Gazette (@Gaceta_UNAM) January 16, 2021
The study was carried out by scientists Jorge Morales Montor from IIBO, in collaboration with Omar Amador, Karen Nava Castro and Margarita Palacios del CCA. “The question,” says Morales Montor, “was if we could measure, as they mediate in the air, these same pollutants in human fluids.”
The medical literature states that these chemicals cannot be measured in humans, since these pollutants tend to break down due to the influence of the body’s metabolism. Given this, the team of scientists decided to refute this theory through observations and clinical tests in female patients suffering from breast cancer at different stages.
The study
Researchers detected the presence of bisphenols and phthalates in the blood of Mexican patients, for later, determine that there is a correlation of these compounds contained in plastics and cans with breast cancer.
Another significant result was that patients from Mexico City, one of the most polluted in the world, had more phthalates in their blood than those of a patient from another nearby city, Toluca. These observations were the main indicative of the correlation of the levels of these pollutants with cancer disease..
The research is entitled: “Environmental medicine and its implications in solving national health problems: effect of polycyclic aromatic compounds and phthalates present in the particulate phase of Mexico City’s atmospheric aerosol on the immune system and susceptibility to breast cancer ”.
The study was conducted in 200 patients, these preliminary results are a call to avoid this risk factor, reducing the use of plastic products and increasing their recycling.
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Application of discovery in cancer clinic
The measurement of one or two of these contaminants in blood can be proposed, not as a diagnostic test but as a predictive or prognostic tool. According to Morales, “It will tell you whether or not your dibutyl-hexyl-phthalate levels are very high and if the result is positive, you will have to look for alternatives to avoid exposing yourself so much.”
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