Editorial Comment: Here’s an announcement from Natural Mom’s Talk Radio that everyone should be aware of – parent or future parent. Host, Carrie Lauth, interviews her guests who educate listeners about Bysphenol A in products and expose that it’s been an issue for a long time, but manufacturers and governments have done little to address the issue.
BPA: Bad Plastic Additive
Ok not really. BPA stands for Bisphenol A. But it is bad. Very bad.
Did you know that researchers knew as early as 1938 that BPA caused miscarriages and other health problems in lab rats? Yet it became a part of our daily lives in the 50′s when it started to be a component of baby bottles, water bottles, milk bottles and even the lining on canned foods.
BPA is a hormone mimic. It’s an endocrine disruptor. In one lab, when the scientists washed the plastic food containers that the lab rats ate out of with detergent, and BPA started to leach into the rat’s water and food, these rat mommas started having all kinds of reproductive issues – multiple miscarriages, chromosomal anomalies.
Does this bother anyone else?
The BPA stuff is currently hitting the fan however. Parents are sitting up and taking notice and saying “I’ll pass on the bad plastic additive, thank you very much.” Manufacturers are starting to phase out the BPA and use alternatives.
This week on my podcast I talked with a husband-wife team who are adamant about getting the BPA message out to parents, and guide them towards safer products for their kids and themselves. You can listen and find out more about BPA about their cool free text message service here.
Thanks for sharing this, Carrie. You mention reproductive issues in women, but are there other known harmful effects in humans?
At this point the evidence is really strong that among lab animals, there are very harmful effects. There is less evidence – but it’s still there that there are harmfull effects in humans, like the article on developing brain tissue below.
There’s a great quote in this article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130092108.htm
“There is a large body of scientific evidence demonstrating the harmful effects of very small amounts of BPA in laboratory and animal studies, but little clinical evidence related to humans,” explains Belcher. “There is a very strong suspicion in the scientific community, however, that this chemical has harmful effects on humans.”
We already know that excess estrogen in our food and water supply is harmful. Right now we’re basically guinea pigs, but I’m certain that in a couple of decades, maybe less, the results will be seen. Did you know that Canada is making the move to ban BPA?
Another reference re BPA and breast cancer: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060826171235.htm
BPA and brain tissue: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=14790
Thank you Carrie..I had no idea this was being used for our babies (even though mine are older now) but at least my future generation may have a healthier alternative now that this is in the open!