Bisphenol A

Environment agency says there are sufficient grounds for concern.

Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has advised manufacturers, importers and users of bisphenol A (BPA) to use alternative substances that pose less risk to human health and the environment in all areas of use that significantly contribute to exposure. “This way an important contribution can be made to product responsibility in the case of a substance for which precautionary protection of humans and the environment is...

We all know that certain chemicals in everyday products are harmful:  mercury and lead, just to name a couple. But how harmful, and what can we do about it?

Mere weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that bisphenol A (also known as BPA) is safe, a final report released this week by the National Toxicology Program says the dangers “cannot be dismissed.” The report says that there is “some concern” that BPA can effect development of the prostate gland and brain and can have behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children.

Certain things are hard for me to wrap my brain around. Like bisphenol-A (BPA)–the industrial compound used in manufacturing polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, and contained in a wide variety of consumer products (baby bottles, plastic containers,  the resin lining of cans for food and beverages, to name a few). People are exposed to BPA by using such products–one sampling in a CDC body burden study detected the chemical in 93 percent of those included.