Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.
The study looked at chemicals extracted from a PVC medical feeding tube and a polyurethane hydration pouch, like those used by long-distance runners. PVC and polyurethanes are also used in everything from kids toys to food packaging to furniture.
The findings showed for the first time how plastic chemicals probably wreak havoc on cell signals that regulate the body’s internal clock, throwing it off by up to 17 minutes.
“We don’t know the significance of it and you could say, ‘Oh it’s just 15 minutes so it’s not a big deal’, but it’s such a tightly controlled clock that it’s a significant shift,” he (Martin Wagner, a study co-author and plastic chemical researcher with the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology) added.
So, they didn’t actually study people’s sleep?
No, because they were studying how plastic toxins affects cells at the molecular level. This study will lead to other studies to check people’s toxin levels vs their sleep patterns.
Yes, it will lead to other studies, but the headline suggests that “Plastics in everyday objects may disrupt sleep in same way as caffeine…” as if they actually compared plastic exposure to caffeine in living people through a sleep study.
Seems like a huge assumption.
I say this, because in vitro studies can point to very wrong, absurdly misleading conclusions. For example, avocado extract appears to damage human chromosomes… in vitro. But when consumed, it’s healthy, and may even be cancer-protective.
The opperative word there is “may”. They are not saying it does, only that it may.
But why even jump to that conclusion? They could have said “may cause baldness”, too.
I mean, they come up a list of things, but proved none of it: “Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.”
I just wish that journalists would be a little less sensationalist with stuff like this. Even if it were an animal-based study, assumptions should be tempered when it comes to reporting on the implications to human health.
Not to criticize the study, since we really do need to know how these plastics are harming us, but the headlines need to chill out.
Because that’s how science works?
We know how things can disrupt the sleep wake cycle. Caffeine does this. The plastics do it the same way in experiments. This means it’s entirely possible that the plastics do the same thing to us, and we should study it l.