Baby’s Toxic Bottle: Study Says BPA Leaching Causes ‘Adverse Effects’

As if Bisphenol A, or BPA, didn’t have enough of a bad rap in the bottled water world, it now has been linked to the plastic product that enables parents to feed their newborns.

Baby bottles made from the industrial chemical used in epoxy, resin and polycarbonate – or everyday plastic– can release BPA when heated. The compound has been linked to changes in human hormones because its structure mimics that of estrogen. The links are so evident that scientists have dubbed BPA a “hormone disruptor.”

“As the name implies, hormone disruptors can interfere with the natural human hormones, especially for young children,” blogger Cristen Conger writes in an article on HowStuffWorks.com. “According to a joint U.S.-Canada study conducted by a group of environmental health organizations, BPA in products and inside a woman’s body (from using BPA-containing products) may cause development and neurological problems for fetuses and infants based on the results of extensive animal trials….”

Obesity is one of the purported side effects of BPA ingestion.

Conger’s source: A report titled “Baby’s Toxic Bottle: Bisphenol A Leaching from Popular Baby Bottles.” The 20-page study by The Working Group for Safe Markets and a coalition of other organizations in the United States and Canada tackled the topic impacting our most precious population.

The organizations tested baby bottles made by popular manufacturers and sold in brand-name stores and concluded they leach between five and eight parts per billion of BPA.

“Laboratory experiments with animals show that exposure to this level of bisphenol A causes a range of adverse effects,” the study says.

Stores including Whole Foods Market have banned baby bottles from its shelves while a U.S. Food and Drug Administration task force studies the risks of BPA in the safety assessment project “Bisphenol A (BPA): Use in Food Contact Application.”