Wednesday, August 27, 2008

What is BPA? Should we be worried??

Lately I have heard or seen the letters BPA and have heard that it can be toxic or cancerous. So as I am drinking from my NOT BPA free smart water bottle I started to look around on the internet to find out for my self,I love science, and I felt obligated to share what i found.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=just-how-harmful-are-bisphenol-a-plastics

"First synthesized in 1891, bisphenol-A came into use as a synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. Later, chemists discovered that, combined with phosgene (used during World War I as a toxic gas) and other compounds, BPA yielded the clear, polycarbonate plastic of shatter-resistant headlights, eyeglass lenses, DVDs and baby bottles."

Well I got my information mostly from that website. But the main thing besides it being toxic is that BPA is an estrogen mimic...(I know Teri, more estrogen to stay away from) meaning that it can over long periods of exposure it can cause infertility, prostate problems, obesity, and other ailments.

I don't know about you but when I was in college, all the cool kids had those Nalgene bottles, you know they made you look like you were an attractive outdoorsie person. Well bottles like those are BAD. They have started to pull them off the shelves because they leak BPA.(There are cool looking camelbak ones if you need to have a bottle to boost your self image. Also metal bottles are great as well. If you want to buy a new water bottle get one here Dry Tears it will actually help build a well in Africa) Anyhow you will find BPA in :Baby bottles, eyeglasses, toys, food containers...the list goes on for where you can find this poisonous plastic.

You may have been told by your friends, to not microwave plastic. When you do it changes the arrangement of the solid and then this BPA will off gas. I don't want to scare you or sound like a weirdo. But I want my friends to be aware of ways to keep your families safe. I'm not telling you to throw away your pampered chef or tubberware. Just don't buy anymore...buy glass instead. It is actually more cost effective in the end and it is green!


ok that is enough from your radical naturalist friend....oh yeah don't forget to recycle your BPA plastic!!

2 comments:

Teri said...

You go girl! Thanks for the info. I replaced about 90% of my food containers with glass pyrex-ware from Walmart about a year back. And Nathanael has BPA-free bottles.
BUT, from the time Hunter could drink from a sippy cup he's always had the cheap "take and toss" plastic ware. A while back I was expressing my concern about the BPA in Hunter's cups and stuff and someone reasoned that maybe the older the plastic stuff gets and the more you reuse it, the less BPA is left in the material to leak out. What do you think?

Jennifer said...

What I learned about the plastic is that it will always off gas, because that is its basic composition, the only way it would stop off gassing is if it ceased to be in its plastic state.
Fabrics and woods can stop off gassing but plastic will not because the plastic its self is what is producing the gas.