Top 10 Teen Scandals Of 2008
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An Urban Legend Overturned
“I know” she said, “but ‘they’ said BPA is poisonous and we shouldn’t use any products that contain it because it will make our children sick…”
What a wonderful statement to make, so bold, so confident and so misinformed! Well, it’s not entirely wrong - BPA is “poisonous” and never intended for human consumption, but as with all things, a little perspective is in order.
Let’s start with some facts first, they’re always a good building block for a reasoned argument, and unlike Chicken Little, we’re not going to run around waving our arms telling people the sky is falling - heck, it’s not even a little bit shaky.
What is BPA?
Bisphenol-A more commonly referred to a BPA, is a chemical building block used primarily in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. Polycarbonate plastics are a lightweight, high-performance plastic possessing a unique combination of toughness, optical clarity, heat and electrical resistance.
Ironically, it’s precisely because of these qualities that polycarbonate plastics are popular in a wide variety of common products including CDs, DVDs, electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles, sports equipment, and of course the “infamous” reusable food and drink containers.
Contact With a BPA Based Product Is Bad For You
Well if you mean having one of those vehicles (that used BPA in it’s construction) running into you, then ‘Yes’, that’s bad. But if you mean drinking from a water bottle or eating your lunch from your favourite super-hero container then that would be a big fat chemical-free ‘No.’
Yes, the media had a field day with the “BPA scandal”. You couldn’t open a magazine, listen to the radio or turn on the TV without someone trying the scare the BPA out of you - pardon the pun.
But it’s not what it seems. In fact, in early 2008, after extensive analysis and review, a report was published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health that stated once and for all:
“There is no clear indication from available data that the BPA doses normally consumed by humans pose an increased risk for immunologic or neurologic disease. There is no evidence that BPA poses a genotoxic or carcinogenic risk and clinical evaluations of 205 men and women with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-verified serum or urinary BPA conjugates showed (1) no objective signs, (2) no changes in reproductive hormones or clinical chemistry parameters, and (3) no alterations in the number of children or sons:daughters ratio. Results of benchmark dose (BMD10 and BMDL10) calculations and no-observed-adverse-effect level.”
And the Bisphenol-A website (
www.bisphenol-a.org
) published these findings:
“Researchers from government agencies, academia, and industry worldwide have studied the potential for bisphenol A (BPA) to migrate from polycarbonate products into foods and beverages. These studies consistently show that the potential migration of BPA into food is extremely low, generally less than 5 parts per billion under conditions typical for uses of polycarbonate products. At this level, a consumer would have to ingest more than 1,300 pounds of food and beverages in contact with polycarbonate every day for an entire lifetime to exceed the safe level of BPA set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Consequently, human exposure to BPA from polycarbonate plastics is minimal and poses no known health risk.”
1,300 Reasons Not To Worry About BPA
Did you catch that? You’d need to consume over 1,300 pounds of food that came into contact with BPA to ingest levels exceeding the Environment Protection Agency recommendations. For all intents and purposes, that is humanly impossible.
Ahah! But Low Dose Exposure Corrupts Reproductive Abilities!
Wrong again. And the notion that BPA ingestion will bring on early puberty in girls, and cause boys and men to become sterile is simple fear-mongering. The low-dose hypothesis for bisphenol A (BPA) has been thoroughly tested with a series of comprehensive, carefully conducted studies. The consistent lack of low-dose effects found in these studies demonstrates the low-dose hypothesis is not valid and provides strong reassurance there is no basis for human health concerns from exposure to low doses of BPA.
So Products Using BPA Are Safe?
As with all things scientific, it’s fact until it’s not. Current studies and in-depth analysis proves as of today the fears and concerns surrounding products using BPA are ungrounded. But if you have any concerns about using products containing BPA you always have the final say: you can buy BPA-Free products.
*Sources: http://www.bisphenol-a.org and the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, Volume 11, Issue 2 February 2008 , pages 69 - 146
About: Jacobus Beresford is a writer and marketing expert who - every once in a while - gets a bee in his bonnet and writes articles like this to clear the air or stir things up a little. What do you believe?
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