November 2008
Plastic worries
What you need to know to keep your family safe
Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., director of the Consumer Reports Web site GreenerChoices.org.
All the news about chemical-leaching plastics could drive you to chuck every container in your kitchen. Most of the headlines
have focused on baby bottles and sippy cups made with bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical with potential links to developmental
and reproductive problems as well as cancer. But BPA has been found in all sorts of plastic products, including sports bottles
and food-storage containers. It's also found in the linings of cans. Most polycarbonate plastics made with BPA, which are
hard and generally clear like glass, might be marked with the letters "PC" and/or a number 7 recycling code. But baby bottles
might not be marked, and not all 7s have BPA.
Recently, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us announced plans to stop selling baby bottles with BPA. Some manufacturers, including Nalgene, known for sports bottles, and Playtex, a maker of baby products, have said they're going to stop using BPA. And Canada has announced plans to proceed with regulations to prohibit the importation, sale, and advertising of polycarbonate baby bottles containing the chemical.
But the latest news comes from a new government advisory-board draft report on BPA that indicated there was reason for some concern, especially for infants, children, and pregnant women. But the government hasn't issued any new guidelines or given any advice to consumers. Moreover, the government's safety level for BPA exposure is 20 years old and based mainly on studies that exposed animals to very high levels of BPA. Since then, hundreds of studies have shown a wide range of health effects even at levels people might be exposed to every day. Here are some steps you can take to help reduce your family's exposure to BPA.
This article first appeared in the October/November 2008 issue of ShopSmart.
Recently, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us announced plans to stop selling baby bottles with BPA. Some manufacturers, including Nalgene, known for sports bottles, and Playtex, a maker of baby products, have said they're going to stop using BPA. And Canada has announced plans to proceed with regulations to prohibit the importation, sale, and advertising of polycarbonate baby bottles containing the chemical.
But the latest news comes from a new government advisory-board draft report on BPA that indicated there was reason for some concern, especially for infants, children, and pregnant women. But the government hasn't issued any new guidelines or given any advice to consumers. Moreover, the government's safety level for BPA exposure is 20 years old and based mainly on studies that exposed animals to very high levels of BPA. Since then, hundreds of studies have shown a wide range of health effects even at levels people might be exposed to every day. Here are some steps you can take to help reduce your family's exposure to BPA.
- Look for plastic food-storage containers marked with recycling code numbers 1, 2, or 5. If you use number 7 polycarbonate bottles (PC), keep in mind that heating and washing them might increase the amount of BPA
that leaches out.
- Try glass baby bottles. Our labs recently tested plastic baby bottles that are advertised as "BPA free" from Born Free, Evenflo, MAM, Medela, and
Nuby and found negligible amounts of the chemical. Those bottles are better than polycarbonate ones made with BPA, but glass
bottles are another option. Just keep in mind that they're breakable and can get very hot.
- Check your reusable water bottles to see whether they're polycarbonate. If they are, or if you're not sure, replace them with stainless steel or glass-lined bottles.
- Consider cutting down on canned foods. Can linings might leach BPA directly into food. Some studies suggest that BPA might even leach into canned liquid infant formula.
This article first appeared in the October/November 2008 issue of ShopSmart.
