Plastic Bottles Could Cause Obesity, Hyperactivity, Abnormal Sexual Activity and Early Puberty

Scientists have released a report which indicates that bisphenol A or BPA - used in plastic baby bottles, dental sealants and linings of metal cans may be causing health problems. BPA is reportedly responsible for obesity, hyperactivity, abnormal sexual activity and early puberty in animal studies. This chemical also is reported to change brain structure, body size and behavior in the animals that were studied. It is apparently very damaging to animals during pregnancy and upon infants. The statement of these scientists is contained in the most recent issue of Reproductive Toxicology.

This report is not good news. There are hundreds of billions of cans that are produced annually with the majority containing consumer food products. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated that BPA is not dangerous to human beings in doses up to 50 milligrams per day, but researchers report that humans are exposed to ten times that amount and find BPA in 95% of people that are tested.

European health agencies report that consumers are not at risk from this chemical and so there will be a continuing debate about the potential effects. A review of the literature concerning this chemical reveals that there are no actual human studies that have been conducted.

What this news means to individual consumers is unknown. Will consumers start switching to foods that are in glass containers? There no doubt will be continuing debate about the exact meaning of these studies and any definitive results will probably take years to determine. Canned food producers using BPA cannot easily begin to switch to glass because of the massive financial cost of retooling, so one can bet that they will be carefully watching the studies and probably influencing the results. In fact plastics manufacturers have already criticized this report. It is likely that they will produce their own research that may support the European health safety analysis.

The impact of this report on consumers and producers must have been carefully considered by the 38 leading scientists that signed and released the report. Perhaps that is the key to consumer decision making as selections are made or not made for foods packaged in cans with BPA. Since foods are packaged in a variety of ways, it would seem that the concerned consumer would tend to purchase non-canned foods whenever possible. However, many informed consumers may take a wait and see attitude while many more will remain uninformed about this report. Perhaps we will see labels that read "No BPA" on food packaged in cans.

A conference is scheduled for Monday and it is anticipated that there will be more news and information forthcoming about this issue