One our of local papers, the Reno News & Review, published The Myth of a BPA Free Diet a few weeks ago. The author, Kat Kerlin, was 6 months pregnant at the time of her experiment and it was very disheartening to read that she found it near impossible to avoid BPA in her food.
BPA is everywhere and 93% of Americans have BPA in their urine. Even if we can avoid it in our food by eating fresh, non-processed, non-packaged foods, BPA is still in our pipes and we ingest it just by drinking water. Ms. Kerlin interviewed two scientists: Steve Hentges, the executive director of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council, said we should trust the FDA. He believes the amount of BPA found in packaging and food are at safe levels. On the flip side, Frederick vom Saal, a leading researcher on BPA and a biology professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, thinks we should be very concerned and no amount of BPA in our system is safe. He believes we should be worried because we don’t know enough about BPA to really know it’s effects on our bodies. He also feels the FDA is understaffed and underfunded so testing is not at the top of their priority list.
I read the article with a lump in my throat, until the end. Even though BPA is pervasive, there are some steps we can take to reduce the levels we are exposed to:
- Invest in an inexpensive carbon filtration system. Filter out BPA before it even gets to your glass.
- Never put plastic in the microwave or dishwasher even if the container is marked safe to do so.
- Choose glass over plastic and cans.
- Look for #2 and #5 plastics. These are the least worrisome, according to vom Saal.
I am in the process of switching all my old beat up plastic storage containers to glass. I no longer drink from plastic bottles and even Matilda is building up a nice set of stainless steel drink containers. Baby steps….
