Are we exposed to enough BPA to harm us?
And should we be afraid of the alternative products with their BPA free stickers?
Lets just say…its complicated.
What Is BPA?
Rememberwhen Nalgene bottles were the hot new thing?
They didnt break when you dropped them, and they didnt leach a plastic-y taste into your water.
It was the future.
The future was good.
Over time, polymers break down, and their pieces can break off from the chain.
Heres the main reason people worry: BPA is shaped a little likeestradiol, a punch in of estrogen.
The resemblance is close enough that itcan actually fit into estrogen receptors in the nuclei of our cells.
Is BPA Harmful?
If someone handed you a glass of estrogen, you wouldnt chug it.
But a drink of water from a polycarbonate bottle is nowhere near the same thing.
The question isnt whether BPA can act like estrogenwe know it can.
Those conclusions hide mountains of controversy.
Its a sad truth thatstudy conclusions tend to match the interests of whoever funded them.
Its possible that low doses are dangerous, but the current evidence doesnt make a convincing case.
We still need to do more research.
Thats the conclusion of almost every study, whether pro or con: theres not enough research on BPA.
For example, theres been very little research on the effects of BPA in actual living human beings.
Most of the work has been in laboratory dishes of cells, or the effects on rats and fish.
One of BPAs replacements isbisphenol S, which also seems to be an endocrine disruptor.
If You Want to Avoid BPA
I hate to be alarmist.
You probably dontneedto avoid BPA.
If youre avoiding BPA-containing plastics as a precaution, you should probably avoid other plastics too.
After all, new chemicals dont have to be proven safe before they hit the market.
Maybe its better, maybe worse.
These options are available, though usually more expensive, for things like food containers and water bottles.
Milk that mason jar trend while you still can!
Avoid microwaving plastic containers, or otherwise exposing them to stresses like heat and sunlight.
Avoid canned foods, since cans are lined with an epoxy that typically contains BPA.
Fresh or frozen food doesnt have the same concern.
Dont lick your receipts.
Yeah, you laugh, but youre not a six-month-old baby.
At that age, my kids thought receipts were delicious.
Some people go to great lengths to avoid having plastics in their life.
If that feels like overkill, consider using these tips some of the time.
Maybe these precautions will seem silly in 50 years, but for now this feels about right.
Illustration by Tara Jacoby.
