Did the plastics and food processor industries have too much influence over the US FDA deciding that bisphenol A (BPA) used in the production of water bottles, baby bottles and canned goods was safe? FDA chief Margaret Hamburg, MD has decided to review the BPA data. Canada and Minnesota have banned BPA in baby bottles and other states would like to follow suit.
The good news is that it is easy to find BPA-free water bottles. The bad news is that researchers say almost everyone has detectable levels of BPA in their bodies. Higher levels have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and liver enzyme abnormalities.
High BPA Levels Linked to Increased Risk for Heart Disease and Diabetes
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner: Old-style Nalgene Polycarbonate Water Bottle
Every other week, some regulatory body “discovers” something about products in use for decades that is “dangerous.” Just a bunch of grandstanding politicians looking for attention and to slowly take away your freedoms. And you people don’t even notice it.
My life partner, Mark, and I, have long been concerned about this issue. I am so glad the government is going to fix this problem for us.
I noticed the well placed ad for ‘BPA free’ bottles. The author wouldnt be paid for those would she? What they fail to mention is that all this studie can say is that the people who had ‘higher liver enzyme’ also had slightly higher BPA in their urine, not that BPA caused higher enzymes, not that it was a problem, not that they got it from water bottles, just that those couple people had BPA in their pee. What they forget to mention is that you pee out any BPA you eat in a couple hours, and that there were a couple hundred other factors that likely caused those people to have elevated enzymes that had NOTHING to do with BPA. The also forgot to mention that that study looked for the same BPA-relationship with almost a hundred other health problems but didnt find any! If you look at a bunch of people and how many times they eat with a fork and compare it to 100 medical problems you are going to find a couple that correspond, but that doesnt mean eating with a fork causes brain cancer…get real.
All of the samples of the BPA-free water bottles were purchased by the reviewer at retail cost, to produce a list to satisfy the interest of the readers. “Compare Prices” links throughout About.com are through Pricegrabber, to allow consumers to compare the prices for an item from several different vendors. Pricegrabber and About.com have an ecommerce relationship. About.com Guides are paid independent contractors of the New York Times Company.