Carlos Sonnenschein and Ana Soto Part 2: BPA

Emily Hanson (for Upstream) interviews Drs. Carlos Sonnenschein and Ana Soto of Tufts University.

In this video, Drs. Sonnenschein and Soto discuss how they discovered several estrogenic chemicals and why BPA became the primary focus of their research in the 1990s. They explain the origins of BPA, including the fact that it was originally synthesized to be an estrogen, though it was ultimately used in the synthesis of plastics. They also describe the ubiquity of BPA in our products -- including in plastic water bottles, dispersants in inks, and sealants in teeth.

Drs. Sonnenschein and Soto respond to the following prompts:

Describe why you changed your focus to BPA. 00:00
What was the original purpose of BPA? 03:15
Where do humans come into contact with these BPA-laden plastics? 04:30
Do you think the public fully appreciates the magnitude of this problem? 06:35

The full, edited interview is now available on the Upstream Website.