Eastman Chemical Wins False & Deceptive “Two-Fer”

Eastman Chemical Company gets a double “false and deceptive” award.

The first is for claiming that its Tritan plastic material is free of estrogenic activity.

The second is for claiming that the dubious and discredited scientific study that supposedly backs their claims was done by a credible, independent lab.

The False and Deceptive Statement

Numerous properly conducted scientific studies (cited below) show this is false because the real truth about Tritan is that it leaches EA.:

Eastman Advertisement on Google Search

Eastman Advertisement on Google Search

Published, Peer-Reviewed Studies of Tritan Show Estrogenic Activity

Properly conducted, published studies by labs that are actually independent, agree that Tritan leaches  chemicals that create estrogenic activity. Among those recent studies are:


This ad-free article is made possible by the financial support of the
Center for Research on Environmental Chemicals in Humans: a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation for continued biomedical research.


Eastman web site statements also incorrect

In addition to its advertisement, the statement on the Eastman website that boasts, “Eastman Tritan copolyester is free of estrogenic and androgenic activity” is also false.

Screen Shot 2015-05-25 at 10.48.38 AMWhy is Estrogenic Action (EA) Significant?

The term “estrogenic” refers to hormone disrupting chemicals like BPA and other chemicals from plastics, pesticides and other sources that can affect the health of both men and women in ways that are similar to estrogen. Many hormone disruptors exhibit estrogenic action. (Why Is “Estrogenic Action” Important?)

The Endocrine Society (www.endo-society.org) — the world’s oldest and largest organization for doctors and medical researchers who study hormones – has issued a massive study (Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement) calling hormone disruptors a “significant concern to public health.”

Eastman’s Misleading “Science”

To back up its “No EA” sales claims, Eastman cites a single study which is ripe with conflicts of interest, poorly conducted science and ethical violation The Feb. 17, 2011 study, published in the journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology, entitled, “Lack of androgenicity and estrogenicity of the three monomers used in Eastman’s Tritan copolyesters“, by Thomas G. Osimitz and several other authors”

That study — designed, paid-for, overseen and funded by  Eastman (with money laundered through two trade associations) — tested only three of the many compounds in Tritan. The study was carefully limited to those three components because the chemical company knew in advance that testing any of the 27 variants of the finished Tritan plastic could reveal estrogenic action.

This article shows how the Eastman statements and ads, above, are carefully nuanced and reply only to specific Tritan  components — copolyesters — and not the completed plastic which includes a variety of resins that produce the estrogenic action.

For in-depth coverage on flawed and unethical studies, see:

 

 

 

Comments are closed.