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On April 15, the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction released their recommendations on BPA safety and reported there is “some concern.” According to the WashingtonPost.com, the NTP “acknowledged for the first time yesterday concerns that a chemical found in thousands of everyday products such as baby bottles and compact discs may cause cancer and other serious disorders.” The NTP determined there are no serious or high level concerns on the effects of BPA on human reproduction or development, but acknowledged that the possibility of harm to humans from BPA can’t be ignored. According to Bloomberg.com, the NTP report said: “the possibility that bisphenol A may alter human development cannot be dismissed.” The NTP findings are based on their evaluation of an expert panel review last year.
If you’ve read my earlier Momathon Blog post, you know I am concerned about the BPA (bisphenol-A), a harmful hormone-mimicking chemical found in some plastic water bottles and plastic baby bottles that can leach into the water or other liquids inside. Studies have been done on rats, but unfortunately there is little research on the effect of BPA on human health. BPA is everywhere, but the greatest exposure is through food and drink since it is most readily absorbed through food and drink containers. The dangers of BPA on children and fetuses are higher since they may be able to absorb more of the chemical than adults. BPA could potentially leach into baby formula from polycarbonate baby bottles and the linings of baby formula cans. Also, as I noted in the earlier post, adding boiling water when making formula or using high temperatures for cleaning bottles can increase the dangers because this may “damage” the bottle and cause more BPA to leach into the water/formula.
The Canadian government announced on April 15th that in a year it will ban baby bottles containing BPA. According to an article in The Vancouver Sun and also available on Canada.com, “Although our science tells us that exposure levels to newborns and infants are below the levels that cause effects, we believe that the current safety margin needs to be higher. We have concluded that it is better to be safe than sorry.''
As concerns over BPA increase several US companies have announced they will phase out plastic bottles and baby bottles with BPA. Wal-Mart and and Toys ‘R” Us will phase out baby bottles with BPA. Thermo Fisher announced that they will phase out the Nalgene Outdoor line of plastic bottles and replace them with BPA-free bottles. According to the WSJ.com, “Playtex Infant Care, a division of Energizer Holdings Inc., announced that the balance of its baby-bottle product line will be converted to BPA-free material by year end.”
Back in January I wrote a Momathon Blog post about finding safe baby and toddler plastic bottles and cups. Here’s some links from my post for BPA-free baby bottles:
•BornFree Bottles made of a BPA-free plastic (Whole Foods).
•Foogo Cup from Thermos (Target)
•The Safe Sippy ™ from Kid Basix
•Evenflo glass bottles from (Target)
•TheSoftLanding.com features a variety
