Medical researchers at the University of Alberta said two chemicals leaking from plastic laboratory equipment were so biologically active they ruined a drug experiment.
The findings were so alarming to the researchers, from the university’s faculty of medicine, that they issued a warning in the journal Science, alerting others scientists to the possibility that contaminants from plastic ware in their laboratories could put experiments at risk.
Not enough is known about the two substances leaking from the plastic – quaternary ammonium biocides and oleamide – to know what hazard, if any, they might pose through exposure to consumer products made from polypropylene.
The Alberta researchers aren’t the first to be surprised that chemicals inadvertently leaking from some types of plastic can skew experimental results.
The researchers were trying to inhibit the activity of the enzyme with ammonium chloride. They were surprised to find that even when they only added one part per million of the ammonium chloride, an amount that is so minute it was expected to have little effect, some mystery substance was still blocking the enzyme function.
The team initially suspected contaminants in the chemicals they were using, but eventually they determined that biologically active substances were leaking from the plastic tubes they used to transfer liquids in the experiment.
Using sophisticated testing equipment, they found that one of the mystery chemicals was oleamide, a compound used to improve the fluidity of molten plastic. Oleamide also occurs naturally in the human body, and is found in the brain and blood.
Source: EWG, November 2008
Chapter: Plastics :: 30 March 2009
