As you may have started to hear in the news, there’s a lot of talk about BPA – a chemical that can leach into our food products through can liners and #7 plastics. For all of us who fed our children in plastic bottles and sippy cups, this news is pretty disturbing.

Taken from the EWG blog:
In April of 2008, the National Toxicology Program raised concerns that exposure to BPA during pregnancy and childhood could impact the developing breast and prostate, hasten puberty, and affect behavior in American children. UGGHHHHHHH.

So now you’re probably saying, “I give up”, right? What more can I do? It seems like everything I eat, drink, put on my skin etc. has dangers! Well, actually yes – kinda. But my theory is – do what you can. Reduce risk and exposure where you can. I’m not suggesting that people stop eating canned food entirely or don’t ever drink out of a bottle made from #7 plastic (which, mind you INCLUDES the big 5 gallon jugs of Poland Springs or whatever brand of water used at water coolers in offices all over the country!). But – don’t do it if you don’t have to. I now walk down the hall at my consulting job to get the filtered water, passing by the Poland Springs cooler. I threw out our Nalgene water bottles and went back to the (cheaper!) #2 plastic, squeeze-type sports bottles. Both of those are pretty easy changes – and make me feel a little better.

Now, if I had infants that needed bottles? That might be more challenging. But as I’ve read recently, the glass bottles are not nearly as scary as you might think. One person said in the 2 years she used them, it only broke once – when it fell onto a ceramic floor.

Anyway – for more great information, I found the Boston Globe had a Q&A article about BPA this week and there’s also the link to their actual phone call Q&A, and there’s also the EWG blog cheatsheet and other links from there. I also noticed that there was a Boston Globe article today that stated that John Kerry and 5 other senators are pushing for legislation to ban BPA from children’s products. I’ll have to keep tabs on that one!