Flash in the Pan

Scientific American has an article about plastic food containers leaching the stabilization chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) into their contents. The last time I mentioned this was in connection with Nalgene, but, if this story is correct, it expands greatly on the topic. BPA is a stabilizing chemical used in many plastics, not just polycarbonate, and that there are potential health risks with BPA has been known since the 1930s. The chemical is also more ubiquitous in the food industry than I had realized:

BPA is routinely used to line cans to prevent corrosion and food contamination; it also makes plastic cups and baby and other bottles transparent and shatterproof. When the polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins made from the chemical are exposed to hot liquids, BPA leaches out 55 times faster than it does under normal conditions, according to a new study by Scott Belcher, an endocrine biologist at the University of Cincinnati. "When we added boiling water [to bottles made from polycarbonate] and allowed it to cool, the rate [of leakage] was greatly increased," he says, to a level as high as 32 nanograms per hour.

The chemical also leaches more quickly when exposed to other heat sources, like dishwashers and microwave ovens. The problem is that no one seems to agree on whether this is a health risk or not:

The Food and Drug Administration has approved its use and the EPA does not consider it cause for concern. One U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel agreed, but another team of government scientists last year found that the amount of BPA present in humans exceeds levels that have caused ill effects in animals. They also found that adults' ability to tolerate it does not preclude damaging effects in infants and children.

It does seem that the biggest problem is for infants and pregnant women, but who knows what else might be an issue? The plastics industry is pushing to keep using BPA because they don't have a substitute that would make plastics shatterproof and lightweight.

But the question comes up as to whether individuals want to take a greater chance than is necessary. (Polycarbonate containers, specifically, is usually marked with a 7 somewhere.) My family has been talking about moving to glass containers and away from plastic entirely, but we've yet to find products other than canning jars that have tops that can fasten down. I'll be doing some research into non-plastic alternatives and will report/review when I have something in hand.

Labels: container, contamination, plastic