The Health Dangers Of Reusing Plastic Bottles And Bags | Environmental Working Group

As if there wasn’t enough to worry about for parents with last year’s crisis of Chinese lead painted toys, now the ^7 recycling icon is considered a toxic symbol. 

If this isn’t a massive issue of Corporate Authenticity, I don’t know what is. All polycarbonate bottles and other containers are suspect to some degree because of something called bisphenol-A (BPA).

From The Health Dangers Of Reusing Plastic Bottles And Bags by the Environmental Working Group:

…researchers concerned with the evils of a common chemical known as bisphenol-A (BPA) suggest you should toss out these baby bottles along with any toys suspected of containing lead or dangerous magnets.

How toxic is BPA? Nobody really knows for sure.

In fact, it’s still debated as a scientific issue, however WalMart has pulled BPA baby bottles from the shelves.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that…

“[T]he possibility that bisphenol A may alter human development cannot be dismissed,” says this new draft report from the U.S. department of Health and Human Services.

Though the evidence isn’t entirely clear, it’s possible that exposure to the chemical during infancy could cause changes in prostate and mammary tissue that raise the risk of cancer later in life, the report suggests. The latest analysis goes beyond two others from last year, both of which concluded the chemical was safe in low doses.

I’m still researching this matter after a year and it’s almost inconclusive, yet safer to err on the side of caution.

BPA: A Call For Corporate Authenticity

I tend to side with this frustrated parent’s opinion:

What we want is actually quite simple. We want companies that produce products which come into contact with infants’ and toddlers’ mouths, and which are exposed to high heat due to washing and sterilization, to disclose the types of plastic they use in their products.

We want companies to inform consumers so that people like us don’t have to do their job for them. Labeling like this will only influence the choices of people who care. If people care, they should have a choice. If enough people care about materials that you’re afraid to label your products with the information, you’re using the wrong materials.

Listen up, chemical companies. We’re having a conversation. We’re trading information, we’re becoming organized.

And if what you’re doing is threatening our children’s safety, we’re coming to GET YOU.

Legally of course.

BPA Leaching: I’m feeling better

This week a senior FDA scientist recently told Congress that:

[A] large body of available evidence indicates that food contact materials containing BPA currently on the market are safe, and that exposure levels to BPA from these materials, including exposure to infants and children, are below those that may cause health effects.

According to the EWG article called Tips to Avoid BPA Exposures, I am fortunate because for my three children we dodged the major bullets:

We never heated the formula and poured it into the bottles. All three kids had cold formula, and two of them had powdered formula not canned. My oldest son had non-canned Similac (at a tremendous cost let me tell you) and the younger two had powdered formula served cold.

We cooked mostly fresh foods, avoiding canned foods for the most part. According to the EWG site, most BPA is dispensed within canned foods, and only trace amounts through polycarb drinking containers.

We used stainless steel or sippy cups which weren’t polycarbonate. The parenting blog Z Recommends has a great article called the Sippy Cup Showdown which details this even further.

Moreover, all the kids enjoyed fresh fruits and vegetables much more frequently than canned vegetables or pastas (ravioli or spaghetti-o’s type) which, according to the EWG, had the highest levels of BPA leaching.

I’ve also been hand washing the BPA containers, mainly because it does a better job of removing milk and I can’t wait for the dishwasher, however I did push for sterilizing all the containers at least twice a month by washing them in the dishwasher.

From The Health Dangers Of Reusing Plastic Bottles And Bags | Environmental Working Group:

One of the reasons opinion is divided over the older child is the range of sensitivity to BPA that scientists have observed among individuals.

Fortunately, there are now a number of BPA-free bottles on retailers’
shelves. If you want to make a switch but your child will not tolerate
another type of nipple, Deardorff suggests that you can still manage to
lower the risk of BPA exposure in these ways:

1. Avoid heating the plastic bottle. This means steering clear of a
dishwasher, sterilizer, or microwave. The incidence of leaching is much more severe from heated than unheated plastic bottles. One alternative is to heat milk in a pan on top of the stove, let it cool, then pour it into the bottle.

2. Discard any cracked bottles. Leaching increased after a bottle had been washed more than 20 times, went through prolonged daily use, or became scratched, researchers noted.

3. Switch to safer brands. Bottles manufactured from BPA-free polypropylene are still on the market. Some of the brands include Medela, Born Free, and Adiri Natural Nurses. Also be sure to check the recycling labels since many No. 7 bottles contain BPA. By contrast, most No. 2, 4, and 5 plastic bottles are made of polyethylene or polypropylene.

DeNoon suggests you can avoid the BPA problem altogether if your baby will tolerate a switch from canned formula to a powdered product. He cites reports from a March 2007 study by The Environmental Working Group in which national laboratory tested 97 cans of food purchased in Atlanta, GA; Oakland, CA, and Clinton, CT.

Tests proved cans of chicken soup, baby formula, and ravioli had the highest BPA level. A full one third of the cans with infant formula had BPA levels 200 times the Government’s safe exposure level.

Deardorff also cites Ari Brown, co-author of the 2005 book “Baby 411″. Brown urges parents to simply avoid using any polycarbonate bottles until researchers know more about the impact of BPA.

As for your little one, you can replace all your plastic bottles for just $50.00 to $100.00.

Baby 411, Third Edition: Clear Answers & Smart Advice for Your Baby’s First Year by Denise Fields, Ari Brown Read more about this book…

Further Research:

The Z Report: A Directory of Bisphenol-A In Baby Bottles and Sippy Cups

The Health Dangers Of Reusing Plastic Bottles And Bags | Environmental Working Group

Timeline: BPA from Invention to Phase-Out

Your BPA questions, answered 

Wall Street Journal: Health Blog

FDA: Bisphenol A in Plastic Bottles is Safe

Wal-Mart, Nalgene Move Away From Bisphenol A

Worries Grow Over Bisphenol A in Plastics

Consumer Product Safety RSS

US Consumer Product Safety Commission – Recent Child-Related Product Recalls