Bisphenol A (BPA)

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Bisphenol A (usually abbreviated to BPA) is a compound used in the manufacture of various plastics. Throughout early 2008 it has made increasingly large headlines as various studies proclaim it to be a health risk, retailers pull BPA-containing products from shelves, and finally governments have come out with positions against it.

Where do you find BPA/How do you avoid BPA?

Plastics containing BPA are labelled with the recycling type 7 (labelled with a 7 on the bottom of the bottle) though not all recycling-7 products contain BPA. This is the "other" catch-all category of plastics. According to Wikipedia, "Type 3 (PVC) can also contain bisphenol A as antioxidant in plasticizers."

Among BPA-containing products are the clear, colourful Nalgene bottles. This led MEC and other retailers to stop carrying Nalgene bottles.

Effects of BPA

Among the reported ill effects of BPA are:

• changes to genital tract
  
• changes in breast tissue that can lead to cancers
  
• increase in prostate mass
  
• signs of early puberty
  
• decline in testicular testosterone
  
• insulin resistance
  
• decreased maternal behavior
  
• damage to eggs and chromosomes
  
• hyperactivity
  
• reversal of normal sex difference in brain structure