How To Avoid Plastic

Ahh.. plastic! The triumph of the 20th century! It's all around us and found in places it shouldn't be. (Like your urine...more on that later) Just look around you...pretty much everything you see is made of some form of the stuff. But some are "better" than others. Some are "safer"than others. This is an examination of just ONE of the harmful components : BPA or Bisphenol A.

BPA is widely used in everything from canned food lining, to baby bottles, to plastic water bottles. IT IS HARMFUL despite what the chemical companies and mega manufacturers tell us, but it is manufactured at a growing rate of 2.6 billion tons a year!

Your body reacts the same way to BPA as it does to hormones. More specifically the sex hormones. This means there are irregularities (miscarriages, menstrual disorders, early puberty,etc.) and more breast cancer, ovarian, and prostate cancer when exposed. And...everyone is exposed.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) over 90% of the American population over the age of 6 (YES 6!!!) has positive BPA levels in their urine. Baby bottles and sippy cups are among the products manufactured with BPA plastics.

Here are some of the harmful effects of BPA:

Ovarian cancer
Breast cancer
prostate cancer
miscarriage
premature birth
ADD and ADHD
liver disease
diabetes
heart disease/lipid abnormality
infertility
feminizing male organs in utero

According to the study performed November 2011 by the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, concentrations of Bisphenol A, was 1221% higher as measured in the urine of 75 volunteers who ate 12 ounces of canned (Progresso) soup daily for 1 week as compared to those who ate homemade soup. The lining in these cans and many others cause the BPA to leach out into the food.

A study done in October 2011 showed Mothers who ingested higher than normal levels of BPA during pregnancy, were found to give birth to girls who had behavioral problems. Boys were not affected. This would match with the theory that BPA effects estrogen, or female hormones. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal "Pedicatrics".

The bottom line is: avoid

1. small children and pregnant women should limit their consumption of canned soups and canned pasta, which had the highest levels of BPA

2.choose powdered baby formula rather than liquid

3.rinse canned fruit of vegetables before consumption

4.make sure your infant's bottle is BPA free

5.look for the letters PC on the bottom of containers and avoid them. This stands for polycarbonate containing BPA and has the #7 recycling number, (although not all #7's contain BPA)

6.NEVER use plastic containers in the microwave as heating increasing the leeching BPA and avoid it.

7.choose recyclable plastics labeled 1, 2, and 4 which do not contain BPA

Here is a great resource for families at : healthychild.org

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Susan Gonzalez, RN is a cancer survivor, health blogger, and owner of MOON Organics Inc, a company that provides healthy products for beautiful women.
Please visit us at www.MOON-Organics.com.

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