Focusing on BPA is an admittedly odd place to start in my investigation of natural living. Plastic containers are about the last thing on my mind. However, it was in a headline just the other day and so I figured I might as well dive into the subject!
Bisphenol A is a chemical used in making plastics. You can read the Wikipedia article to find out all you wanted to know and more. The reason BPA has been in the news the past several years is that it has estrogenic properties. Remember how I talked about how excess estrogen can have all sorts of side effects? Well, several studies have shown that BPA produces these types of side effects in animals, and they extrapolate those results to say that the same effects can occur in humans.
Critics rightly point out that these amounts of BPA are miniscule and a lot of it gets peed out. Watchgroups counter that even tiny amounts are dangerous and that the FDA is in cahoots with industry. Both sides are throwing studies and statistics around. Canada’s classified it as a toxic substance but hasn’t done anything to regulate it. What’s the average consumer to do?
Well, not freak out. But in order to be better safe than sorry, it’s good to know and avoid some of the ways BPA gets into our bodies (it’s in 93% of us). And in particular to keep it away from children of all ages (from the womb to adolescence), as they are especially vulnerable to estrogenic effects.
Many companies have already voluntarily removed BPA from baby bottles as well as water bottles. It’s easy to tell because the packaging usually proudly proclaims a product as BPA-free. But BPA is still pervasive.
If I understand it correctly, though, it’s not like BPA is always seeping out onto whatever the plastic is coming in contact with. It is only leached when exposed to very high temperatures or hard use. So it turns out those email forwards from my grandma that warned against using Tupperware or cling wrap in the microwave and not drinking bottled water that’s been in your hot car for days were actually onto something! In particular, the BPA comes out to play in the microwave and dishwasher. I’d imagine it also happens to some extent during transport, particularly in the summer.
And then there’s also the effect of acidity. When I first heard MileHiMama mention that canned tomato products have BPA, I put on my virtual earmuffs and shouted “Lalalalalala! I can’t hear you!” I use canned tomato products all the time. This week’s grocery list alone includes a can of diced tomatoes, a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of stewed tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste. While that’s a can or two more than average, you can see that it’s a staple of our diet, and I always thought it was a pretty healthy one at that.
But it turns out that cans are lined with BPA, and acidity from tomatoes can cause BPA to seep into the food. Very few food companies seem to think this is a problem – remember, the harm of BPA is still debated and so these companies maintain that their products are completely safe.
If you want to play it safe just in case, supposedly General Mills’ Muir Glen organic tomatoes are or soon will be in BPA-free cans. However, word around the internet is that they aren’t planning to market this fact, which I find a bit suspicious. That and the fact that they keep saying “with the next tomato harvest” so you aren’t really sure when it will (or has?) happened.
Now back to that headline I alluded to earlier. Normally I ignore advertisements masquerading as news stories, but this one from NPR did catch my attention because it brought up a question I’d also wondered: is BPA really the only problem? Or might there be other chemicals in our plastics that can cause similar effects? This article suggested that indeed, there are other “estrogenic activity” chemicals in our plastics. Great, huh?
I really don’t want to sound like a fear-monger here, because I don’t think estrogenic plastic is the biggest problem out there – not by a long shot. And if we get rid of the BPA, who’s to say that the replacement materials are any better? We are completely surrounded by plastic and while it does seem like it may be slightly harmful, it’s not the most dangerous thing out there. I really don’t want to make other mothers feel scared or guilty over something with no immediate effects and unknown (though certainly possible) cumulative effects. With that in mind, here are some conclusions I’ve drawn.
Importance Level: Low, although higher for the young.
But I would not go so far to say that “the worse case is that some women may have little beards.” Gag.
Simple Solution: Don’t microwave your food in plastic or with cling wrap. Don’t put plastic items in the dishwasher. Throw out your plastic when it starts to get worn out. Buy BPA-free when possible, especially baby-related items.
Thorough Approach: Get rid of all plastic in the kitchen and any plastic that a child might put in their mouth. Only use high quality wooden toys, glass storage, etc.
Range of Options: Instead of just labeling something “good” or “bad,” I think it’s more productive to have a range of options. After all, tomatoes are healthy, and eating some is better than eating none or eating junk, right? So I put together this chart for tomato products. Since tomatoes aren’t one of the “dirty dozen” (they’re right in the middle of the list of 49 types of produce assessed), I’m not specifying organic or non-organic on here. Also please note that this is all based on my conjecture and therefore could be wrong. For example, I’m not sure whether “fresh” tomatoes from South America would be better or worse than homegrown preserved tomatoes.
That Married Couple’s Conclusion: We threw out my old water bottles that weren’t BPA-free. I’d already been moving toward not using plastic or cling wrap in the microwave, so we’ll continue that. I won’t be throwing out our Tupperware (I really like it!) and to be honest I doubt I’ll be washing it by hand. But I will try to reconsider what we store in it. Putting my husband’s sandwich in it is no biggie, but storing leftover tomato-based meals should probably not happen - not because it would be a problem in the fridge, but because I'm often too lazy to transfer it to a different plate when I reheat it. (I do realize that it's a bit hypocritical to worry about the chemicals in my food storage when I don't worry about the chemicals in my food itself. I’ll get there eventually. Baby steps, though.)
As to tomatoes, I’ll check when I go to the store later today. If the Muir Glen ones are not like twice the price of regular, I’ll likely switch to those, at least part of the time. *** Updated to add: Muir Glen diced tomatoes were $1.99. The store brand was $0.79. Guess who will be sticking with the generic tomatoes? *** And this summer we might grow extra tomatoes in our garden so we can freeze more of them.
Oh, and what about the plastics Miriam might end up putting in her mouth? We’ll make sure to get BPA-free teethers. Other than that, I don’t plan to worry too much about the plastic she’ll come in contact with. But perhaps that’s because my husband threatens to throw out any plastic that comes into our house in the first place.
Do you worry about BPA or plastics? Have you made any changes in your home because of this? Or do you think it’s making a mountain out of a molehill?
Related:
Here’s one of the first journalistic (and therefore a bit alarmist) investigations in this.
Here’s a 2008 Scientific American article about BPA.