Bisphenol a Effects

What Are Plastics Doing to My Kids?

by Christine Lepisto 

Everyone has heard of bisphenol-A by now, or at least seen “BPA free” appearing on everything from baby bottles to camping gear. You may be breathing a sigh of relief to see regulations increasingly banning the suspect chemical, and to find many manufacturers jumping to provide options to minimize BPA exposure. But a new study, Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals, has the web abuzz with concern. Do you need to worry about your little ones from drowning in a sea of scary chemicals? What can you do to keep them safe?

Estrogenic chemicals are chemicals that our bodies mistake for the natural hormones in the estrogen family. All humans naturally produce estrogenic hormones, even men — although at significantly lower levels than in women, where ovaries act as estrogen factories. Estrogen is responsible for many of the body changes that make us women feminine, including breast growth, regulation of the menstrual cycle, and triggering many changes related to pregnancy. Any woman who has experienced menopause, or read about the experience, knows that estrogenic chemicals also have tremendous influence in mental health. In short, these are powerful chemicals.

The first thing you should know about the study “Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals” is that most of the authors work for a pair of companies that are selling the test method used in the study or selling services to help the plastics industry certify their products as free of estrogenic activity. The second is that the assay developed for this purpose appears to have promise as an automated method for ensuring the risk is absolutely minimized — but does not prove that real health risks could be caused by plastics that do not “pass the test.”

The study found that over 70% of plastics leached estrogenic chemicals in a wide range of plastic products right off the shelf, both with or without packaged contents. When the plastics were stressed by simulations of typical real world situations — dishwashing, microwaving, or exposure to sunlight — that percentage increased to about 95% of the plastics tested. In other words, all plastics may leach chemicals that mimic estrogen. The study used a cut-off of 15% of the activity of the natural estrogen known as E2 as the indicator level for a positive test.

The issue raised by the article does deserve consideration, in spite of suspicious author affiliations. Many more additives than BPA are used to plasticize, colorize, or otherwise fine-tune the properties of the long-chain polymers that make up the bulk of what we call “plastic.” Even substitutes for BPA may fall victim to the substitution dilemma — the replacement of a known hazard by an unknown, but also potentially hazardous, additive.

What can you do to keep your child safe?

First, use as little plastic as possible in food or drink contact applications, and keep plastic toys out of reach of babies and toddlers that are still exploring the world with their mouths. You will need to focus on fresh foods and avoid pre-packaged items to achieve this, but the benefits go far beyond merely avoiding plastic additives. (And our own Kelly Rossiter provides plenty of recipes for busy parents.)

Second, for some for the applications where you really cannot live without plastics — and there may be many of these (think baby bottles, sippy cups, etc.) — only use reusable plastics. Of course, buy BPA-free, even certified free of estrogenic activity if that takes off. Then, actively leach your plastics before the first use by soaking them in a solution of saltwater, followed by letting them stand with some alcohol in them. Wash well with mild (non-antibacterial) soap, and rinse well before use.

Finally, avoid the stressors mentioned above by hand washing at moderate temperatures, never microwaving plastics, and keeping plastics out of direct sunlight.

If you follow these steps, any chemicals that might leach from these items will leach, after which the exposures will drop off. In this way, you can find a balance in which you can enjoy the most important benefits of the modern conveniences of plastics while keeping your child’s exposures as low as possible.

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