Here Is What You Will Learn About BPA:
1. What is BPA?
2. How Can BPA Hurt You?
3. How Does BPA Enter the Body?
4. Do I Have BPA In My Body?
5. How Much BPA do I Have In My System?
6. Why Is BPA Still In So many products?
7. What can you do to Minimize exposure to BPA?
1. What is BPA?
BPA stands for bisphenol A and it is categorized as an organic synthetic compound. This means that BPA is carbon based, or has carbon in it, (organic) it is made in a lab (synthetic) and is made through chemical reactions of multiple elements (compound). BPA is made in labs and is used two main types of materials, polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. These plastics are used to make A LOT of stuff, and it’s no wonder, considering that an estimated 5-6 billion pounds of BPA are manufactured a year! Here a is (small) list of products BPA is found in:
Polycarbonate Plastic:
Plastic/water bottles
Food containers
Baby bottles
CD’s & DVD’s
Windows
Glasses
Epoxy Resin:
Food cans linings
Dental Sealant
Bottle caps
2. How Can BPA Hurt You?
Many lab studies have been done on animals to study the effects of BPA. BPA harms the endocrine system, which controls our hormones (bodies use hormones to coordinate almost all activities in the body). BPA also causes reproductive problems in mice. The reproductive problems even continue for up to 3 generations. BPA can clearly have terrible effects on animals, but are these same problems also be found in humans? Potentially.
There is not as much data on the effects of BPA on humans, but there is still a fair bit of research. Some research shows that BPA is associated with diseases like obesity, breast cancer, infertility and birth defects. BPA harms the humans the same way it does to animals; by attacking the endocrine system. The two hormones that BPA affects strongest are estrogen and androgen. Estrogen and androgen are important to the reproductive systems of women and men and developing female and male characteristics. BPA is an androgen agonist and estrogen antagonist, so it negatively affects the release of both these hormones.
3. How Does BPA Enter the Body?
The main way BPA enters the human body is through ingestion. People drink or eat from containers that are made with BPA and it leaches into the beverage or food and enters the body. Certain conditions can make BPA leach from the containers much quicker. BPA migrates from polycarbonate bottles into boiling water 55 times faster than it leaches into room temperature water. Even in regular conditions though, BPA leaches onto food and beverages.
4. Do I Have BPA In My Body?
The short answer: almost definitely. The CDC conducted a study on 2,517 people and found BPA in the urine of almost 93% of the people tested. These results show how common BPA exposure is, they do not show that there are harmful levels of BPA in all or even most of the people. The CDC also has data on the amount of BPA found in people throughout the US population in its National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.
5. How much BPA do I Have In My System?
Unfortunately this is a question with a lot of different answers depending on who is asked. Scientists disagree on two major questions: How much BPA is in my system? And how long does BPA stay in my system? The CDC data shows that the average amount of BPA in a person’s urine is 1.83 ng/mL. Other studies claim that number might be as high as 52 ng/mL. Then there is the question of how long does BPA stay in the body once ingested. Again, there is a lot of disagreement here. Conventional wisdom has been that the active form of BPA has a half-life of 6 hours in the human body and is almost completely gone within 24 hours, leaving no long-term effects. New research suggests that it may last in the body much longer, sticking to certain tissues. The research suggests that it may become active again under certain circumstances, meaning it can have long-term negative effects. Then there is even another question, how much BPA exposure is too much?
6. Why Is BPA Still In So Many Products?
Regulating bodies use the available research to make their decisions on what chemicals are allowed in consumer products. In this case, groups like the FDA trusts the data that shows minimal negative effects from BPA. Here are the latest FDA conclusions of BPA use in food contact applications. The EU and USA have both banned the manufacture and sale of baby bottles using BPA. Other European countries have taken gone even further like France,which banned its use in all food packages. This goes back to the previous section, scientists disagree on how much BPA the average person has in their body AND on how much BPA harms people. Unless more research is done to learn how dangerous BPA really is, governments will continue working slowly to stop its use.
7. What Can I do to Minimize Exposure to BPA?
If you are worried about the dangers of BPA, here are a few easy steps you can take to avoid exposure:
- Buy BPA-Free food and drink containers (there is usually a “BPA-Free” label)
- Do not let your water sit in hot bottles
- Do not microwave food in plastic containers
- Store your food in glass containers
- Avoid canned foods
- Avoid plastics with 3 and 7 recycling codes (1, 2, 4, and 5 are the safest)