Blog
The Smart Mama’s Simple Steps to Avoiding BPA
Jennifer Taggart
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Why all the recent press on Bisphenol A (“BPA”)? Two reasons. First, the National Toxicology Program just released its draft report on BPA, reconciling contradictory conclusions of two scientific panels. The draft report finds “some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures.” Further the study states that “the possibility that bisphenol A may alter human development cannot be dismissed.” The report will be finalized after public comment sometime this year. And the second reason is that Health Canada is poised to announce that it is found BPA to be a dangerous substance. In advance of that announcement, major retailers are pulling certain BPA containing products off store shelves, including Wal Mart Canada announcing that it will pull BPA containing plastic baby bottles and sippy cups.
These are major developments in a debate that has been going on the last couple of years. What’s the issue? BPA is found in polycarbonate plastic. It is the basic monomer of polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic is widely used for a number of consumer products, including plastic baby bottles, toddler sippy cups, sport drink bottles, 5 gallon water jugs and similar food storage containers. BPA is also found in the epoxy resins used to line canned foods and beverages.
BPA can leach out of the polycarbonate plastic or from the epoxy resin and into whatever food is stored. The conditions that lead to leaching of BPA are not fully understood. But, heat increases the amount of leaching, by as much as 55 times for boiling water as compared to room temperature water, but leaching occurs at room temperature too.
Are we really exposed to BPA? Yes. A survey conducted through the Centers of Disease Control found BPA in the urine of 93% of Americans. And our children have the highest levels.
Why do we care about exposure to BPA? BPA mimics the hormone estrogen and disrupts the body’s endocrine system. Estrogen is an important chemical messenger. Disrupt the messenger, and the systems may be affected. Based upon animal studies, BPA exposure is linked to early onset of puberty, increased diabetes risk, hyperactivity, and certain cancers, including breast cancer. BPA exposure can impair brain function, leading to learning disabilities and age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
That BPA mimics estrogen is not some startling new revelation. BPA, along with diethylstilbestrol (“DES”) and other chemicals, was investigated for use as synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. BPA wasn’t used, but DES was. DES was considered safe, but we were wrong about the safety of DES. It was only after DES was given to millions of women that it was found that DES causes reproductive defects and increased the risk for rare cancers in the daughters of the women who had taken DES during their pregnancies.
BPA’s safety is being hotly debated right now. The plastics industry maintains that BPA use in food contact items is safe. The recent developments suggest otherwise, and are consistent with the numerous low dose animal studies which have shown adverse health effects at the levels to which we are exposed.
What is frustrating is that retailers in Canada are taking action to remove BPA containing products from their shelves, but the same retailers are not doing the same here. So, what can you do until regulators take action?
Can the Cans. Pick fresh, frozen and dried foods over those that are canned. If you are buying canned goods, choose glass instead.
Don’t heat in plastic. Don’t heat polycarbonate plastics in the microwave or add hot food or beverages to polycarbonate plastic. Heat increases the rate of leaching of BPA. One study found that adding boiling water to polycarbonate plastic increased the rate of BPA leaching 55 times over room temperature water. Choose glass or ceramic instead to heat foods and beverages.
Don’t store fatty or acidic foods in polycarbonate plastic. Fatty and acidic foods increase the rate of leaching. Store these foods in other containers, such as glass or ceramic. For cheeses, you can try butcher paper or waxed paper.
Toss polycarbonate bottles. You may be toting around a water bottle to be environmentally correct. But if it is polycarbonate plastic, you should ditch it for another bottle. Try a stainless steel bottle instead.
Toss polycarbonate plastic baby bottles & sippy cups. Choose glass or any of the alternate plastics.
Check your dental sealants. Taking care of your teeth is important. But, if you can, try to skip getting fillings done while you are pregnant or nursing. If you need a filling, dental sealants are probably preferable to mercury-containing dental amalgam. Ask to see the MSDS for the filling materials. Look at the ingredients, and try to avoid BPA, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether and bisphenol A dimethyl acrylate. The preferred ingredient seems to be bis-glycidyldimethacrylate because it does not appear to release BPA due use.
Posted by holly on 12/05/2010 at 11:31 PM
Thanks for posting this. We reuse glass jars as food containers instead of using Tupperware, etc. Do you know if the lids on glass jars typically contain BPA? And, on a related note, does BPA have to touch food in order to leach?
More comments:
Get Answers
View All
Read and Learn
It's the trusted guidebook for the Next Generation of Parenting "...that every single parent needs to read..."
PICK UP A COPY
Now In Paperback!
Archives by Month
What We Read
Posted by alert one life alert systems on 02/24/2011 at 04:05 PM
That’s a lot of disheartening information to take in at one sitting. Probably the most troubling is to learn that large retailers have voluntarily removed BPA-containing packaging from the shelves of their Canadian stores . . . but have not done that here in the United States. As a nation, we seem to be mesmerized by the corporate bottom line and think we can dodge the bullet of natural consequences. Many innocent young children will pay the price for this foolishness.