Bisphenol A

A headline from today's Globe and Mail is a fascinating followup to Melissa's comment on my Sad About Tomatoes post. It is: "Canada first to label bisphenol A as officially dangerous"

I wrote in my post about how canned whole tomatoes were significantly more tasty than the redish spherical objects (labelled "tomato" but not overly convincing) available in my local grocery store. Melissa agreed but avised that the coating inside aluminum cans contains BPA.

According to the Globe and Mail article:

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals in modern industry. It is the basic building block for polycarbonate, the see-through, shatter-proof plastic that resembles glass, and is also used to make the epoxy resins lining the insides of most tin cans, along with some dental sealants, sports helmets, and compact discs.

What makes it dangerous?

Independent researchers in dozens of studies have linked trace BPA exposures in animal and test-tube experiments to conditions involving hormone imbalances, including breast and prostate cancer, early puberty and changes in brain structure, particularly for exposures during key points of fetal or early neonatal development.

I have recently seen reading some disturbing information about plastic, especially the transparent Nalgene bottles. It's hard to know which sources can be trusted so I didn't want to jump the gun, but we immediately stopped using our Nalgene bottles. (I was very sad about this one because we had just purchased some cool Nalgene sippy cups for the kids). I have been steadily replacing our plastic containers with glass and enamelware. This really clinches it, though.