What if You Can't Escape It?

Is what we eat to nourish our children, actually damaging their health before they're even born?

 

The modern world has really become complacent in recent years. We question the way things are, what is safe and what we consume, but only skim the surface.

 

When the BPA scare came out and the world panicked, we took BPA out of baby bottles, children’s plastics and some water bottles. Some companies also removed BPA at the behest of their consumers; to satisfy their requests for BPA free products.

All while the world was still unaware of what BPA really is, and while suppliers assured everyone their products containing BPA are safe for consumer use.

 

After all of this, can anyone say they know what BPA is? Why is it unsafe? Or worst of all, are we still consuming it?

 

Recently to try and rehab my brain from the surgery and stress of last year, I started selling Tupperware. At training one day, a director stated that BPA is used in powder form in the lining of some food packaging.
Could it be true? Surely there is no way a country (which was the first country to declare BPA a "toxic substance") would allow such products within our borders, and for Canadians to consume!?!

 

So much research ensued….only to find that it is true. In 2003, U.S. consumption was 856,000 tons, a 72% increase from the1980’s study.

 

Canada does allow BPA to be used in items we handle regularly, and on a daily basis. Items such as, but not limited to: baby and water bottles (remember we import, so not all products are necessarily BPA free on our store shelves), sports equipment, medical and dental devices, dental fillings and sealants, CDs and DVDs, household electronics, and eyeglass lenses. Epoxy resins containing bisphenol A are used as coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans (this one shocked me the most, since basically the liquids would be absorbing it for months before consumption). Bisphenol A is a preferred color developer in carbonless copy paper and thermal papers (most common public exposure coming from some thermal point of sale receipt paper). It is also used in foundry castings and for lining water pipes.

Bisphenol A is also a precursor to the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol A, and formerly was used as a fungicide (it kills things..hmmmm).

 

So what is BPA anyway? Why is it so bad for our consumption? 
 

BPA is a compound made up of acetone (hence the suffix A in the name) with two equivalents of phenolan (artificial estrogen)

The first use of BPA was to enhance the growth of cattle and poultry
 

BPA's toxic effects in lab animals are on the rise and common in people



A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control tested a demographically diverse group of almost 400 Americans for evidence of exposure to BPA and found that 95% of study participants had the chemical in their urine

 

 

The article also shows, a study of women with a history of recurrent miscarriages found they had higher serum BPA when compared with women with normal pregnancies. Thus leading the authors of the study to conclude, "exposure to bisphenol A is associated with recurrent miscarriage"
(Sugiura-Ogasawara et al. 2005).  

 

 

 

Resources:

http://www.ewg.org/node/20937