Controversial Plastic Chemical Is in Canned Food, Too
Bisphenol A is used in the liners of some cans that keep food from spoiling
There's been another surge of negative news about bisphenol A in the past few days. Wal-Mart has decided to ditch baby bottles containing the controversial chemical, which is used to make polycarbonate plastic, after the National Toxicology Program expressed "some concern" about bisphenol A (BPA). And Canada's national health agency said on Friday it is taking steps toward limiting the chemical.
What's odd is that we've heard so much about plastic water bottles and baby bottles and so little about bisphenol A and canned foods. According to the Environmental Working Group, cans are the primary source of human exposure to the chemical. (Most metal food cans have plastic linings that prevent spoilage but are rich in bisphenol A.) Numerous studies support the environmental advocacy group's notion that cans are key if you're trying to avoid bisphenol A. A study published in 2007, for example, found that 99 percent of children's exposure to BPA occurs through food. After the Environmental Working Group tested 97 name-brand canned goods, it concluded that 1 in 3 infant food cans, and 1 in 10 food cans overall, contains enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to levels more than 200 times the government's traditional safe level for industrial chemicals.
"The bulk of BPA exposure definitely comes from food," says Jovana Ruzicic, a spokesperson for the Environmental Working Group, noting that media attention has, nevertheless, focused on baby bottles.
Reader Comments
bpa, warfarin and other drugs and chemicals
What can we the people of the U.S. do to receive quality drugs and foods?
How can we get the government, who has taken on the responsibility to make
us feel that we are receiving safe, quality drugs and food, do their job in a more
efficient manner. How do we get the news media to educate the public.
For years I have been against plastic bottles for our food because they are made
from petroleum. In the last years our grocery stores have been stocking their
shelves with all our food being contained in plastic bottles/containers. The shelf
life of these foods is also shortened because plastic breathes whereas glass
doesn't and is safer.
Acids, such as tomatoes, lemons, and such leach the plastic into the food. Aluminum is the other major concern. No acidic foods should be cooked in or
stored in aluminum because it leaches the aluminum from the item. This
is one of the major causes of Alzheimer's, Beatrice Trum Hunters' book "How
Safe is Food in Your Kitchen? Copyrighted in 1981 by Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York.
Beatrice Trum Hunter was one of the very knowledgable speakers at the New
England Health Food Convention in New Hampshire in the '70s. Her lecture was
a wake up call as aluminum was used extensively for pots and pans during
WWII. It's this generation, my parents generation, that have Alzheimer's to the
degree that nursing homes are built primarily for them.
If the public is not educated in the destructive ways of aluminum, plastic bottles,
cans, dangerous chemicals in their medication and foods, we will need a lot more
hospitals and nursing homes at a time when we should be stressing preventative education. People need to learn to take responsibility for their health, well-being and happiness.
BPA & FDA
From numerous articles, I am lead to believe that the FDA is failing the American consumer in so many ways that even our prescription drugs that are purchased at the local pharmacy may have been manufactured in China and sometimes contain serious errors in the manufacture of that drug that may cause a fatal reaction in the patient. "Made in China" never appears on the prescription container and the damage to the consumer may not be obvious until long after the drug has been consumed, the the container discarded. Many additives to food and medications are poisonous when consumed in large amounts, or over long periods of time, and the FDA seems to often ignore this. As a very elderly person, I take a minimal dose of three inexpensive prescribed medications, all of which are essential because of my 40 year chronic heart problem. I still cringe every time I swallow that Warfarin tablet, and destroyed most of one bottle several years ago when it was obvious it could not be the strength noted on the bottle. It was not a phamacist error as I bought the 100 count bottle that was packaged by the pharmaceutical company and the pharmacist only applied the appropriate label to the bottle. How many people have to be injured, or killed, before our government corrects the deficiencies of the FDA?
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