Bisphenol-A in Plastics

[Daphne at Parenting.com]

All this talk about chemical bisphenol-a found in plastic bottles scares me! I was watching PBS a few nights ago and it had a segment on plastics harming the environment.

They were testing plastic baby bottles and their bisphenol-a emission levels and how emission levels increased when heated in a dishwashing machine. Apparently it releases a hormone that imitates estrogens and induces gender switching in animals? Do I have that right? They also showed fish that were switching genders because they were swimming in plastics even though bisphenol-a was found in one-trillionth of a quart of water or something. Sorry..forgot the details...either way they said that the endocrine is a very sensitive organ an can detect these hormonal changes in the environment, (contributing to why younger girls' bust sizes have been larger on average?).

Even Canada has banned bisphenol-a in plastic bottles. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/business/worldbusiness/25plastic.html)

It was such a sad show. They had shown an area in the Atlantic ocean where the ocean was littered with plastic twice the size of Texas. Animals were swimming in plastic soup. :( I weep for the environment while watching these things, and I think I'm really going to try to push myself and my family to reduce the amount of waste and impact we have on the environment. Are there other bad effects bisphenol-a have on animals?

[lou]

I posted this in a thread titled Toxic Plastics and just copied it to this one.
At this point I don't think there's any big threat here as far as baby bottles go but I agree that we should try to reduce the amount of waste we produce and should make bigger attempts towards maintaining a healthy environmet for all inhabitants.


I'm not saying that you shouldn't be concerned but often enough it happens to be the case that there's no justified cause for concern, some people just get off on causing other people to panic. there are many examples of this such as a recent scare that someone has been putting aids infected needles on the handles of gasoline pumps (not true). you can check whether or not these stories are true at snopes.com. I really suggest checking out stories such as these rather than spreading the fear. an article about toxic plastics can be found at http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp

Here's part of the article about toxic plastics:

The first bit of plastic bottle scarelore quoted above was based upon a master's thesis from a University of Idaho graduate student, one which was unfortunately reported upon by the media despite its lack of peer review. According to The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA):

More recent studies have claimed that some plastic products (including plastic baby bottles) leach miniscule amounts of bisphenol A, a substance that has been linked to reproductive problems and cancer in lab rats, into liquids. However, whether bisphenol A poses the same risks to humans, and whether the small amount of bisphenol A that might be ingested through the use of plastic bottles is sufficiently large to be of concern, are still subjects of considerable debate:
[Environment California's] report is the latest rebuttal in the debate between environmental researchers and government bodies who disagree on the health risks of bisphenol A. While some reports, such as the study released by Environment California Research & Policy Center, conclude the chemical is hazardous at low doses, American, European and Japanese government agencies conclude the exposure to most people is negligible.

"I think that some of the things (Environment California) say are based somewhat on their political views," said David Weiss, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, who reviewed the report and other studies on the topic.

He said the concentrations of the chemical are so low that they are below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "levels of concern."

The acceptable intake established by the EPA is .05 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. The study's findings are noted in "parts per billion," making a comparison difficult, though the study notes that the amount of bisphenol A found fell below the government standard.

[JanMarco]

This is good info. Thanks for posting it here. Many canned goods are also coated with plastics that contain BPA. CamelBack has released a line of bottles made from BPA free plastic. I think we're going to see more and more info on this in the future.