Potential Risk In Baby Bottles
Public health and environmental officials were gathering Wednesday to call for the immediate removal of a potentially harmful substance found in some plastic baby bottles and plastic food containers.
Researchers say that the chemical bisphenol-A - which has been in baby bottles since the 1950s - can leach out of the plastic at higher temperatures, and into food.
Bisphenol-A, also called BPA, was identified in the 1930s as an estrogen-like substance that acted like the hormone estrogen. While scientists do not yet know what impact the chemical might have on people, related studies suggest that even small amounts could affect growth.
"There is a very large and growing body of science from all over the world that shows that very, very tiny amounts of hormone-like substances have a significant impact on development in animal studies," says Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "That certainly can be true with humans as well."
A hormone-like substance such as BPA could disrupt the developmental process, and could also affect learning abilities, behavior, and fertility.
While the possible effects of the chemical are unknown and recent tests have been inconclusive, health and environmental experts say the risk is too great. They want the Food and Drug Administration to start a proceeding to look into the safety of plastic containing BPA.
"We need a great deal more research before we're exposing millions of children to this," Clapp says.
Clapp says the plastic that contains BPA is a clear, hard plastic made of a material called polycarbonate. Most labels on baby bottles include contact information, so that parents can call the manufacturer to ask what the bottle is made of.
Non-clear plastic bottles -- tinted and cloudy-looking - usually are not made of polycarbonate. These bottles are made of polypropalene, Clapp says, which does not contain the chemical in question.
Clapp suggests that parents avoid using baby bottles that contain BPA. If they must use them, they should avoid heating them at high temperatures and replace them often. For those parents who don't want to use plastic baby bottles at all, glass ones are an alternative.
The May issue of Consumer Reports suggested that, although the possible risks of BPA are not known, "it makes sense to limit exposure to them."
The magazine tested six different bottles. It reported that when baby formula is heated in the bottles, infants may be exposed to a level of BPA forty times higher than a level that adversely affected animals in research at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
But these claims have met sharp criticism from the plastics industry, which has argued that the FDA has approved BPA's use for 35 years. Industry officials have claimed that the magazine does not understand toxicology and risk assessment, and asked Consumer Reports to retract its statements.