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Studies show exposure to BPA in cans and bottles can have adverse health effects.
A new study published in Pediatrics finds that 3-year-old girls exposed in utero to bisphenol A (BPA), a product found in food and beverage packaging, have increased risk for behavioral and emotional problems. Girls whose moms had higher levels of BPA exposure during pregnancy were more anxious, hyperactive and aggressive than normal, although their symptoms weren’t serious enough to warrant a clinical diagnosis of anxiety or ADHD.
The researchers are not sure why the girls in the study were affected and the boys were not, but in an interview with CNN they speculate that, ” … when expectant mothers ingest BPA, the fetus absorbs the chemical and it may lead to more testosterone in girls, affecting how their organs develop in utero, which might explain why some girls develop behavioral problems.” Continue reading »
When you buy something made out of plastic, do you look for the words BPA-free? When you see it, do you assume that means the product is safe for your family? I do. Or I did, until I did a little reading. Then I remembered a conversation I had a few years ago with a friend of mine who happens to be an expert on plastics. He told me then that BPA was no less safe than any of the other compounds used to manufacture plastic products. In fact, he said, it might even be less so. It just happens to be one of the more studied ones.
In other words: Maybe BPA is simply the devil we know. And the devil we don’t know yet, but are all quietly ingesting along with our spring water and fresh squeezed juice—that our babies are ingesting with their formula or breast milk—could be even worse.
Touching, not just eating and drinking BPA
We hear a lot about how bisphenol A (BPA) makes its way into our bodies through food and drink, but a study released last week in the journal Chemosphere finds that BPA is “efficiently” absorbed through the skin as well.
French toxicologists found that “free” BPA — which is BPA in an unlocked chemical form, so to speak — can easily be transferred through the skin. They radioactively labeled BPA and watched how it moved through the skin of a pig’s ear, as well as through human skin.
The BPA absorbed at a rate of 65% for pig skin and 45% for human.
What common objects contain “free” BPA that could transfer through touch? Continue reading »
We’ve written a lot about BPA here on Strollerderby, and I mean a lot. So much so that I think it’s time for me personally and maybe for some of you to really examine how much BPA is present in our lives and the effect that it’s having on people. Especially since top scientists all around the world are sounding the alarm about the chemical at an alarming rate.
The most recent scientist to speak out against BPA, Exeter University Professor David Melzer, is urging manufacturers to cut down on BPA in food packaging and containers and believes the chemical “should be put through the same rigorous safety trials as new drugs,” according to The Daily Mail. During a recent press conference at the Royal Institution in London, Melzer told reporters, “I think small effects for large numbers of people matter and it’s reasonable that a tiny proportion of the costs of BPA should be put to human drug trial-type assessments to settle once and for all whether this compound is bio-active in humans.” Continue reading »
Bisphenol-a, or BPA, is everywhere. It’s in the lining of every can of soup at your grocery store. It’s in the Nalgene bottle you’ve carried with you since college (though not in one you bought this year, since the company has stopped using BPA). It’s even in our dental sealants.
BPA shows up in the urine of nearly everyone living in North America.
Should we care?
Maybe. The science on whether or not BPA harms humans is mixed.
BPA is a known endocrine disruptor. In animals, BPA has been linked to obesity, cancer, and diabetes. Studies of it’s effects in people are harder to quantify, leaving medical researchers with more questions than answers. A growing number of scientists, advocacy groups and elected officials are calling for a ban on the chemical in food containers, especially those marketed to children.
The bad news about BPA just keeps coming.
We know the hormone-disrupting chemical leaches into our food and water through plastics, the linings of food and beverage cans and other household items. Over 90 percent of Canadians have BPA present in their bodies. The specter of BPA exposure is a huge stress for pregnant women.
But does it do any real harm? Industry lobbyists would like us to believe the chemical is safe for humans, but science just keeps turning up more evidence that it’s not.
A new study from Washington State University shows that even extremely small doses of BPA affect the ovaries of female mice. It takes only 12 hours for BPA to disrupt the formation of eggs and alter their ability to pass on genetic information.
That affects not only the lady mouse with the BPA exposure, but her children and grandchildren.
Two new studies off some insight into asthma risk in childhood.
The first lets parents with less-than-perfectly-clean homes off the hook: Early exposure to dust mites and cockroaches doesn’t appear to raise asthma risk.
But when pregnant mice were exposed to BPA, that ever-present chemical found in everything from baby bottles to soup cans, their offspring were at higher risk of developing allergic asthma.
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