What is bisphenol A?
Bisphenol A, a chemical used in some plastics, has been at the center of controversy since late last year, with scientists and environmental groups accusing the compound of leaching out of containers and jeopardizing our health.
BPA has been used for decades to make polycarbonate plastics, a hard material used in the linings of some food cans and in some clear, reusable bottles such as baby bottles and water bottles.
But recent studies suggest that the chemical, known as an "endocrine disrupter" for mimicking estrogen and interfering with the hormone system, has been linked to a host of health problems, from reproductive issues and cancer to diabetes.
The suspected dangers of BPA
In the anti-BPA camp, the following information reveals suspected threats of BPA:
In February, a study commissioned by Environmental Defence, a Canadian activist group, tested baby bottles made by Gerber, Playtex and Avent. The findings showed no notable leaching at room temperature, but "significant" levels when heated -- 5 to 8 parts per billion. (Canada's designated limit of BPA exposure is 25 parts per billion per day).
A 2008 study from scientists at the University of Cincinnati and published in the journal Toxicology Letters found that when hard plastic bottles were filled with boiling water, BPA was released 55 times faster than when filled with room temperature water.
A 2007 article by Frederick Vom Saal, a biologist at the University of Missouri, and 37 other leading experts on BPA published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology stated that exposure to the chemical led to changes in prostate, testes, mammary gland, brain structure and behaviour in lab animals.
The article also suggests BPA may be linked to human health hazards including:
-breast and prostate cancer
-Type 2 diabetes
-early onset of puberty in girls
-obesity and;
-neurological behaviour problems.
The assessment was sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Belief of BPA threat varies, according to whom you ask
"Along with the health ailments, they're saying that the current concentrations in the population are above the concentrations that are being found in the studies to cause health effects," Aaron Freeman, policy director of Environmental Defence says about the NIEHS evaluation. "The other thing they said is, because of the way this chemical interacts with the body, what we're seeing in animal studies we can expect to see in the human population."
However, Dr. Joe Schwarz, director of McGill University's Office for Science & Society, says it's almost impossible to determine just how the chemical will affect humans. "You could eat Bisphenol A by the spoonful and you wouldn't notice anything now. It's a question of what may happen over the long term, and that's very, very difficult to evaluate. The only way you could ever have an answer to this is to take two groups of humans, expose one group to known amounts of BPA and follow them for decades. It's not doable. There are a lot of experts making guesses on this."
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