On April 18 Canada removed almost all plastic baby bottles off the Canadian market because they contained a chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA). The same day Walmart announced it was removing all bottles with BPA in American stores and Nalgene, the maker of hard athletic water bottles was discontinuing the production of all water bottles with BPA. Toys R Us and Playtex followed a few days later. For over a year now there has been a growing number of published reports detailing the harm done to young babies not to mention the cancer and hormonal issues to children and adults from BPA. The Environment California Research and Policy Center reviewed 130 studies on BPA and said reusing certain plastic bottles allows minute pieces of plastic into your liquid beverage and scrambles your bodies hormonal messaging system, causes miscarriages, affects children's growth and causes breast and uterine cancer. A one time use won't kill you but it is the cumulative affect that is the problem. The Centers for Disease Control has found BPA in 92% of the population age 6 or older tested. My daughter had bought regular baby bottles for my granddaughter and when I heard this information, I had her throw them and get bottles that don't contain BPA.
Advertisement
In my office and home we discontinued using plastic water bottles and have switched over to glass. But that begs the question, can other plastics hurt me? There is another substance in plastic called pthalates which is raising concerns. This chemical found in plastic is a softening agent found in kids toys, shower curtains, plastic tubing (used in refrigerators with cold water and medical IV tubes) as well as beauty products from shampoo to finger nail polish. Studies have shown this to be a problem in babies as well as before they are born. In one study of 500 men at Harvard, the higher the level of pthalates, the lower the sperm count and fertility. You regularly hear of young couples "trying to get pregnant?" In my day you didn't have to try. Could this be the cause or a cause? For a while experts have said that processing plastics is bad. This means freezing it, microwaving it, heating it, and reusing bottles because this pushes plastic particles into your food and beverage and that is not good. But now they are saying that whole categories of plastics are bad. According to The Daily Green, there are seven major kinds of plastic used in food and beverage containers. For recycling purposes most bottles put the number on the bottom of the container. For example Lexan and Nalgene bottles are number 7 and contain BPA. There is also concern about type 1 plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or PETE) which includes many disposable water, soda and juice containers. One time use is okay but reusing it releases DEHP, a known carcinogen. Not to mention it takes a lot of energy to make the millions of bottles used every day and many end up in land fills, an environmental concern. Plastic # 3 is PVC or polyvinyl chloride which can leach chemicals that disturb hormones and carcinogens. Finally plastic #6 which is polystyrene, found in disposable cups and plates, can leach styrene, a carcinogen into food particularly if processed in a microwave or heated with hot water. So far nothing bad as been found about # 2, 4 and 5 but not a lot is made from # 4 or 5. Other safe alternatives are stainless steel or glass. To be the safest, buy glass bottle of Snapple, wash it in a dish washer and fill it with filtered water. This raises some interesting questions I don't have answers to. What do you do with known bad plastic like BPA. Do you recycle it and put it back in the system or do you throw it in the trash and let it poison the landfill? What about the white plastic fillings in your teeth? The jury is still out on some of this stuff. If you would like to see past articles by Dr. Anderson, you may find them at: www.drcraiganderson.com/ and click on Articles by Dr. Craig.