What is BPA?
Bisphenol A, referred to as BPA, is a chemical that is commonly founds in plastic objects since the 1960s. It is also found in metal food products such as food cans, and is thought to bleed into the food or liquid the container is holding. BPA is thought to damage the brain and harm to pregnant women’s fetuses, as well as infants and children.
Who Made the Discovery?
David Feldman, a medical professor at Stanford University discovered that BPA might be a cause of medical problems. While Feldman and his team were growing yeast in a plastic petri dish, they discovered estrogen molecules growing as well
After looking into it further, they discovered it wasn’t the yeast creating these molecules, but rather it was oozing out from the plastic. Through this discovery they realized that BPA could potentially be harming people eating out of plastics or metals containing BPA.
After contacting one of the companies who produces BPA containing plastics, it turned out that the company had already looked into it, and deemed the product safe after using their own methods of testing the plastics.
Banned?
The part of the population that was potentially being hurt the most by this estrogen producing plastic, is considered to be the most dependent – infants. “A 2008 report by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) found “some concern for effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and children at current human exposures to bisphenol A,” with that exposure coming from PC baby bottles and infant cups,” explains one article.
When baby bottles were found to excrete BPA into infant’s milk after being microwaved, Europe and Turkey banned BPA in their plastic and metal food containers, as well as Canada and Denmark.
While the US still allows for BPA to be put in all types of plastics and metals, 11 US states have banned it from being in any type of children’s objects.
The FDA
The FDA has claimed that BPA is relatively safe, if in moderately low levels. Due to contestant pushing, the FDA is currently still testing the effects BPA has on health.
It does however, claim that it “supports the industry’s actions to stop producing BPA-containing baby bottles and infant feeding cups for the U.S. market, along with facilitating the development of alternatives to BPA for the linings of infant formula cans.”
How to Avoid BPA
-Some steps you can take to avoid BPA:
-Use more fresh food to avoid using canned foods
– Find products that do not contain BPA
– Do NOT heat plastic that may contain BPA
This symbol means that there is no BPA in whatever container you are buying.
I agree. Lots of people have no idea what it is, which is pretty scary. Not even Andrew really knew what it was. It is so harmful, and we as a public should know about it. there should be more information in grocery stores maybe to help us understand what it really is!
I always think of this when I’m microwaving food at home. Sometimes it is in a plastic container and I’m too lazy to take it out so I just heat it up in the plastic. I have heard before that this can be harmful and it’s nice to now know that it is true. I think this probably applies to a lot of people our age who would be using a microwave for a quick meal, so I would be interested in the final result of the testing the FDA is doing. I found a source from Newsweek that does say majority of scientists would conclude that BPA is in fact harmful and could even play a role in obesity, diabetes and even increasing your chances for certain types of cancer.
This was a nice blog post and good information to know. It is pretty concerning that there are more issues with plastic when we use so much of it. Just think of how many plastic water bottles are used and how often people have a refillable plastic water bottle with them. The FDA saying that BPA is relatively safe in moderately low levels is not too reassuring. Saying only in moderately low levels is already saying that it’s not exactly safe, but then saying it’s only relatively safe if it’s in moderately low levels? That is even more hedging and it makes it seem like they aren’t so sure about it. It might not be too far off that BPA is banned altogether in the United States. A concern though is what i found in this article http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-free-plastic-containers-may-be-just-as-hazardous/ that BPA free plastic containers may be just as harmful.
This blog interested me because I had never heard of BPA before. It is scary how the FDA deems harmful food products as “acceptable” when other nations are banning these substances from their shelves. It is important to watch out for products containing BPA, in order to follow a safe and healthy lifestyle. It is crazy that baby bottles contain BPA, and mothers heat up their baby’s formula or milk unknowingly poisoning their child with this harmful substance. People need to be more aware of BPA, and the FDA should put out new restrictions on health and safety hazards. Thanks for sharing!
Here is a list of ways to avoid BPA:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/best-ways-to-avoid-bpa.html
Just today I read “BPA free” on a blender bottle and was planning to look up what BPA was and you just told me all about it in a great way. I loved how you broke down your blog entry into smaller parts, each with a short title. It made reading a lot easier. I knew what I was going to read next Thanks for the informative read 🙂