When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
We worry a lot about bisphenol A (BPA) — a compound used to make plastics — and whether or not it harms us (and not just BPA, we worry about its substitutes as well). Now, to keep us more awake at night, scientist writer Erika Gebel Reports in Chemical & Engineering News that a group of researchers has found that certain bacteria turn BPA into compounds more toxic to fish than BPA itself.
The pervasive BPA, which is produced by the millions of tons each year by industry, mimics the female sex hormone, estrogen. Scientists worry that BPA may disrupt normal hormonal levels in the body, especially in those of young children. The scientific jury is still out on whether or not BPA should be banned. To learn more, check out our previous post on BPA’s safety.
As Gebel reports:
Max Häggblom of Rutgers University knew that a significant amount of BPA ends up in the environment, where bacteria could transform it to compounds with unknown properties and health effects. So Häggblom and colleagues added BPA to four species of Mycobacterium, a common genus of microbe that the researchers knew could chemically transform related compounds. When they monitored the products with gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry, they discovered that all four species could add one or two methyl groups to BPA.
Häggblom’s team then added these methylated versions of BPA in varying concentrations, all of which were higher than BPA’s normal levels in nature, to tubes of water that contained zebrafish embryos. The researchers watched the fish as they developed and found that it took 10 times as much BPA as methylated BPA to kill half the zebrafish embryos over five days.
The specific chemistry that the microorganisms carry out is O-methylation on the BPA. The bacteria produce mono- and di-methyl ether derivatives of BPA. Both derivatives, according to to Häggblom’s team, are more toxic than plain-old BPA.
Gebel notes that scientists have no data on whether these methylated BPA products exist in nature. But Häggblom told her that he hopes his team’s report in Environmental Science & Technology will prompt environmental chemists to start keeping an eye out for them.
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