West Palm Beach, Florida (JusticeNewsFlash.com – New Report) – Every time you heat a baby bottle, small traces of Bisphenol A, (the chemical found in polycarbonate plastic) are released, but should parents be concerned? A new study was conducted by researchers who tested 19 baby bottles purchased in nine U.S. states and Canada, including brands such as Avent, Dr. Brown, Evenflo, Disney, Gerber and Playtex. When the bottles were heated to 175 degrees F, every one of them leaked Bisphenol A at about 5 to 7 parts per billion. But parents, you can breathe out now – for as of now, the U.S. and E.U. health and environment authorities support polycarbonate plastic use, stating that the amounts in which this chemical is released is safe. ‘Calafat’s recent findings showed that, among roughly 2,500 Americans tested in 2003 and 2004, more than 95% already had traces of bisphenol A in their urine.’
Yet critics of Bisphenol A argue that even low exposure levels have been linked to a variety of sex-hormone-imbalance effects, including breast and prostate cancer, early puberty, miscarriage, low sperm count, and immune-system changes. With this knowledge, opponents of Bisphenol A state that the official safety levels are too high and pose a grave risk to developing infants. Legislation has been proposed in several U.S. states to limit or ban the use Bisphenol A and health conscious stores such as Whole Foods and Patagonia, have do not sell polycarbonate bottles.
This would be the perfect situation to use the precautionary principle, used in the UK and many European countries. The principle implies to treat everything as harmful until it is proven safe. Why should Americans and Canadians run the risk of the aforementioned problems if there is even the slightest chance that this chemical harms children? There are alternatives such as glass and other chemical-free plastics that parents could use instead. Legislators and citizens must be strong in their stance against the use of Bisphenol A, and until further in-depth research is conducted, the U.S. and E.U. health and environment authorities continue to stand by the continued use of regular polycarbonate baby bottles.
