Clashing viewpoints
Frederick vom Saal, a biology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and one of the leading BPA researchers in the country, would go even further. He believes BPA should be banned from all products that might end up passing it along to people. "If it's hard and clear and doesn't say 'No BPA,' don't use it."
In studies of laboratory animals, Vom Saal says, BPA changes play behavior, weakens gender differences, decreases sperm count, stimulates prostate cancer and causes ADHD symptoms.
"All of this is occurring at exposures in animals that lead to blood levels that I guarantee are below what are in your body," he says. "No level has ever been found in animal experiments that doesn't cause harm."
And though most BPA research so far has been done with animals, a recent laboratory study found that it can encourage the growth of human breast cancer cells.
Babies and young children are most at risk from BPA, Vom Saal says, because once it enters their system, their bodies aren't good at getting it out. Maybe adults can metabolize and excrete BPA very quickly, but there's no question, he says, that babies can't do the same. "BPA has a very slow clearance in babies."
He adds: "There are alternatives to everything made from BPA."
These include glass baby bottles instead of polycarbonate ones -- the Glass Packaging Institute recently reported a surge in demand for these -- and natural resin for lining cans instead of epoxy. Japanese manufacturers started using natural resin in 1997, and two years later a study found that BPA levels had gone down significantly.
When Steven Hentges looks at the same BPA research as Vom Saal, he sees a very different picture. As executive director of the polycarbonate-BPA global group of the American Chemistry Council, which represents more than 100 companies, Hentges maintains, "There's no reason for the public to be alarmed. . . . People should make their food choices based on nutrition, not on packaging."
Major reviews of the scientific literature "consistently support the conclusion that there's no risk from BPA," he says, adding that the Food and Drug Administration considers BPA safe.
How to avoid BPA
So what to do?
Mel Suffet, a public health professor and environmental chemist at UCLA, doesn't know for sure how harmful BPA is or isn't. But he has no trouble figuring out what to do about it. "Why use something with a potential danger?" he asks. "It's kind of silly. Better safe than sorry."
Here are several ways to reduce exposure to BPA, as suggested by the National Toxicology Program:
* Avoid putting polycarbonate plastic food containers in the microwave or dishwasher. (By that token, you might also want to avoid putting hot food or liquid into polycarbonate plastic containers.) Heat makes BPA leach out much faster than it does otherwise.
Note: Most (but not all) plastics marked with a No. 7 recycling code are polycarbonates and therefore contain BPA.
* Eat fewer canned foods.
* Use glass, porcelain or stainless steel containers when possible, especially for hot food or drinks.
* Don't use polycarbonate baby bottles.
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