by the El Reporero’s staff
On Wednesday, March 30, a peer-reviewed study will be published in Environmental Health Perspectives that suggests that food packaging is a substantial source of exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which laboratory studies have linked to serious health problems including breast cancer, infertility and early puberty. In this human study, scientists at the Breast Cancer Fund and Silent Spring Institute discovered signifi cant drops in levels of BPA when study participants ate a diet that avoided contact with BPAcontaining food packaging, such as canned food and polycarbonate plastic.
The study, “Food Packaging and Bisphenol A and Bis(2-Ethyhexyl) Phthalate Exposure: Findings from a Dietary Intervention,” tested the levels of BPA in the urine of fi ve San Francisco Bay Area families of four who had a high likelihood of regular exposure to food packaging containing BPA. Next participants ate the low- BPA diet for three days, and another sample was taken. Finally they were evaluated after returning to their normal eating habits. The BPA levels dropped significantly during the dietary intervention. In addition to BPA, participants were tested for several phthalates, plastic chemicals with known links to reproductive problems. Levels of the phthalate DEHP, found in some plastic food packaging, also dropped signifi cantly.
Protest Over Hospital Developer’s Plans
Residents of the Tenderloin, SoMa, Mission, Bernal Heights, Cathedral Hill, Chinatown along with over 50 grassroots community and labor organizations were planning a rally on Tuesday, April 5, to expose the impacts of plans to redevelop California Pacifi c Medical Center hospitals.
According to a written statement by South of Market Community Action Network, California Pacifi c Medical Center (CPMC), the largest hospital operator in San Francisco, is planning on redeveloping their hospital system by building a new campus in the Tenderloin while severely downgrading St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission/Bernal Heights.
“Citywide concerns are growing over CPMC’s low service to the poor (patients using charity care or MediCal), refusal to contribute to affordable housing or mitigate neighborhood and traffi c impacts, severely downgrading St. Luke’s Hospital, anti-Nurses’ Union stance, and general unwillingness to be accountable to communities around San Francisco,” the statement said. At the same time, Sutter Health, CPMC’s parent company, had record profits in 2010, netting $878 million. CPMC/Sutter Health is also a tax exempt non-profit. Communities and workers are calling for CPMC to stop their corporate greed.
Undocumented youth Occupy Georgia University campus
Today, undocumented youth from around the nation are joined by allies in demanding that colleges and universities refuse implementation of bans on higher education. In October of 2010 the Georgia Board of Regents joined South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina and other states in banning undocumented youth from attending college. The ban in Georgia will go into full effect this coming fall. According to the Migrant Policy Institute over 74,000 undocumented youth reside in the state of Georgia.
“We feel that the time for us to stand up has come. I am not only doing this for my friends who are in the same situation, but also for my mom who did everything she could to give me a better life,” says Georgina Pérez, 21, one of the undocumented youth, brought here, from Mexico, at the age of 3. They were arrested. However, the ICE came to see them at the jail, and after telling the truth that they were undocumented, ICE left without putting an immigration hold on them. They were later released.
