Tuesday, January 08, 2008

How Dangerous is BPA for Babies?

So, yes, there's a lot of back-and-forth debate about the dangers of BPA (Bisphenol A) in babies. In August 2007, the Baby Bargains Book authors withdrew their recommendations of polycarbonate baby bottles which have BPA. Z Recommends published a list of BPA-free baby bottle alternatives. The take-home of all of these to the mainstream public is to avoid Avent and Dr. Brown bottles (the most popular polycarbonate bottles on the market), and to move to brands such as Medela and BornFree. 

But, really, how dangerous is BPA exposure? It's still pretty mixed. Reports from the 90s say that there is no danger; the FDA confirms this; the industry--bottle-makers and organizations they belong to--reiterate the safety of their products. 

In November 2007 the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, through their Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) published an expert panel report analysis of the studies on BPA risk to humans. You can read the actual report here

Here's what it concludes (pages 352-353):

1. For pregnant women and fetuses, the Expert Panel has different levels of concern for the different developmental endpoints that may be susceptible to bisphenol A disruption, as follows: 
  • For neural and behavioral effects, the Expert Panel has some concern 
  • For prostate effects, the Expert Panel has minimal concern 
  • For the potential effect of accelerated puberty, the Expert Panel has minimal concern 
  • For birth defects and malformations, the Expert Panel has negligible concern 
2. For infants and children, the Expert Panel has the following levels of concern for biological processes that might be altered by Bisphenol A, as follows:
  • some concern for neural and behavioral effects 
  • minimal concern for the effect of accelerated puberty 
3. For adults, the Expert Panel has negligible concern for adverse reproductive effects following exposures in the general population to Bisphenol A. For highly exposed subgroups, such as occupationally exposed populations, the level of concern is elevated to minimal.

There you go. The panel finds that the highest exposure to BPA is through products that contact food and through damage or repeated use may leach BPA into the food, and that there is then some concern of neural and behavioral effects. 

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