PlastiPure awarded NIH and NSF grants to develop EA-Free material and products

Oct 12 2010

PlastiPure, a safe plastics technology company, announced today that it has received two grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety (NIEHS), a division of the NIH, and an additional grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Collectively the grants fund formulation of a replacement for polycarbonate that is free of estrogenic activity (EA-Free), creating flexible food packaging that contains no EA, and developing a verifiably EA-Free baby bottle.

"These NIEHS and NSF funds continue to validate our innovative technology and will allow us to expand our development of PlastiPure-Safe™ EA-Free material and products," said Mike Usey, PlastiPure CEO. "Consumers want the safest, most sustainable, and most versatile goods possible. PlastiPure's certified EA-Free products are vastly superior to current market solutions that use BPA-free plastics, glass, or metal materials, providing families with healthy, green, and convenient solutions."

In addition to the estrogenic chemicals BPA and phthalates, hundreds of other chemicals having EA are used in plastics manufacturing.  Health issues associated with EA include birth defects, reproductive cancers, and behavioral and learning disorders.  

In recent testing of 15 premium brand BPA-free baby bottles, PlastiPure findings show that all tested  positive for significant levels of EA with 8 at levels comparable to BPA-containing polycarbonate.  Clearly BPA-free does not mean EA-Free.

Recently, PlastiPure has successfully introduced PlastiPure-Safe™ resins (TOPAS® COC PlastiPure-Safe™ grades) and certified EA-Free products (Water Geeks and Hydrapak Purebot™ water bottles).  With new product partner ReliaBrand, PlastiPure soon will be launching additional EA-Free™ products such as baby bottles, medical devices, food storage containers and multilayered bags under the Adiri, ReliaDose, ReliaWare, and ReliaWrap brands.

"Our extensive research has enabled us to identify and replace hundreds of chemicals that contain EA without significantly impacting material properties, processing methods, or tooling," said Usey.  "This allows PlastiPure to produce unique EA-Free products at competitive costs."