Saturday, August 16, 2008

UNCONSCIONABLE

Just read in Yahoo news that - growingly persistent warnings aside - the known estrogen mimicker/hormone disrupter BPA is actually just peachy-fine for lining our food cans (including infant formula) and hardening our babies' bottles. This in stark contrast to other studies done by...you guessed it: scientists who are not in bed with the government agency or the chemistry council.

You may read an opposing and illuminating view here. Or, perhaps better yet: download/read the PDF of a thorough and riveting Vogue magazine article - 'An Inconceivable Truth'*.

If there is any question of risk - especially for babies, something should be BANNED until the safety can be 100% proven (pardon me while I seethe: 'Are any of these cr*$$* chemicals 100% provably safe???'). Unfortunately, while protecting big business, 'we' seem to approve things that are not acceptable with greater ease (and some bribes/bucks) than it takes to question or dislodge them later. It's all about money and CYA. (Cases in point: aspartame, mercury fillings & vaccines.)

Before I use some words that will ban this blog from the 'sphere, let me just say: I am not a sheeple and I refuse to go back to any regularly scheduled programming.

*This IS a magazine article. Therefore, there are bits of other articles on some of the pages.

Addendum: As standard news goes, the Washington Post's article is superior, IMHO. Their articles are not always accessible online, so here it is:

WASHINGTON — A chemical commonly found in can linings, baby bottles and other household products does not pose a health hazard when used in food containers, according to a draft assessment released Friday by the Food and Drug Administration.

The report stands in contrast to more than 100 studies performed by government scientists and university laboratories that have found health concerns associated with bisphenol A, or BPA. Some have linked the chemical to prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity and reproductive problems in laboratory animals.

Exposure to the small amounts of BPA that migrate from the containers into the food they hold are not dangerous to infants or adults, the draft said.

"FDA has concluded that an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses," regulators wrote in the draft report, which will be reviewed Sept. 16 at a meeting of members of an FDA advisory committee studying the safety of the chemical.

The chemical industry and the agencies that regulate the use of BPA, the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency, have deemed the chemical safe, largely on the strength of two industry-funded studies that found no problems. The American Chemistry Council welcomed the findings of the new report.

"FDA is the premier agency responsible for the safety of our food," Steven Hentges, an executive of the group, said in a statement. "FDA’s thorough analysis confirms that food contact materials containing BPA can continue to be used safely."

FDA critic Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said the agency lacks sufficient data to declare the chemical safe.

"Clearly their effort was to minimize people being concerned about this," Zuckerman said. "It just seems that whenever there is an opportunity to look at a new important issue, they just seem to be siding with industry’s point of view."

BPA, in commercial use since the 1950s, is in many everyday items, including compact discs and automobiles. One federal study estimated that it is present in the urine of 93 percent of the population.

1 comment:

unklephil said...

UC Davis recently conducted experiments on the effects of low-level BPA exposure in pregnant felines. Results are reported here.