Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Want to know why so many young girls are entering puberty around 10, when it used to be around 13 or 14? Want to know why so many teen boys can grow a full beard in Grade 10, when I could barely get peach fuzz?
Baby bottles. Specifically, plastic baby bottles laced with Bisphenol A (BPA). [wikipedia]
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They’re cute, they’re convenient, and they’re poisoning our children.
Retailers are making sweeping changes today in advance of Health Canada declaring BPA as a dangerous chemical. A dangerous chemical that appears in everything from infant food containers to compact discs. [source]
It has now been linked to early onset puberty in children and breast cancer and prostate cancer in adults.
Health Canada is expected to issue a risk assessment this week that BPA is a potentially dangerous chemical, a move that could lead to some restrictions in its use, particularly for consumer applications that are likely to come into direct contact with foods or beverages.
The action by the Canadian government would be the first by any country to label the chemical used for decades in everything from baby bottles and the lacquer linings inside tin cans to dental sealants a possible health hazard. [blockquote]
Avent, a leading manufacturer of baby bottles, tows the company line when asked if their bottles contain harmful levels of BPA by only saying their products meet government standards. Well, the government standards are about to change, and those bottles, in fact, DO contain BPA.
DO YOUR BOTTLES CONTAIN BPA?
Look at the recycle number on the bottom. 1, 2, 4 and 5 are better. 3, 6 and 7 are bad. [source]
The Zrecs blog is fabulous. It has a lot more info to help you find other safe products. Back in February, they wrote the Z Report on BPA which includes this list of companies who produce BPA-free products:
Adiri | Baby Bjorn | Baby Cie | Babylife (Wee-go) | BFree | Born Free | Brita | Combi | DCI | Ezee Reach | Emily Green | Green to Grow | iPlay | Kidbasix | KidCo | Klean Kanteen | Medela | Mother’s Milkmate | Mud Pie Baby | Not Neutral | Nurture Pure | Obentec | ORE Originals | Prince Lionheart | Rivadossi Sandro (Trebimbi) | SIGG | Silikids | Skip*Hop | Steadyco | Thermos | thinkbaby [source]
ZRecs also has a text service where you can text Zrecs and the company name to 69866 and they will text back with BPA info on that company.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
First off, learn as much as you can about BPA. Then, go through your cupboards and get rid of everything that might be hurting you, and your family.
One of the first things we did last week was switch up Z’s water bottle. We picked up a Sigg bottle made of aluminum from Whole Foods. Expensive as hell, but safe for Z.
There have been rumblings about this chemical for years, but many disagreements between the studies. But look deeper as to why the studies disagreed.
Dozens of studies by independent researchers have linked low exposure to BPA in animal and test-tube experiments to illnesses, such as cancer, that are thought to have an origin in hormone imbalances, although industry-funded studies haven’t been able to find the same effects. [source]
Arm yourself with knowledge and make changes in your lifestyle. For your health. For the health of your children.
Here are some more tips from Green Living Online
# Use a metal or glass water bottle
# Limit your use of canned goods or choose canned foods from makers who don’t use it, such as Eden Foods
# Learn how to cook your own foods that you typically buy in cans — like beans or chickpeas
# Choose soups, milk and soy milk packaged in cardboard “brick” cartons, by Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc, with safer layers of aluminum and polyethylene (#2) that can also be recycled
# Use glass food storage containers instead of plastic
# Use glass baby bottles or plastic bag inserts made of polyethyelene, or switch to non-clear polypropylene bottles that are labeled with recycle #5
# Don’t buy canned infant formula
# Eat fresh foods in season to reduce your consumption of canned goods
# Buy or can your own foods in safe glass jars
# Stop using plastic wrap and plastic containers to heat food in microwaves. Ceramic and glass are better
# Throw out any old and scratched plastic bottles or plastic containers
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
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Great info. I knew I wasn’t crazy when I said to my wife a while back, “girls did not look like this when I was in sixth grade.”
What about toothbrushes?????
Along Comes a Baby is a specialty baby store in Bellingham, WA that carries glass baby bottles, safe plastic bottles by ThinkBaby, safe plastic aqua bottles by IPlay, and stainless steel adult water bottles. If you have any questions about the products you can contact the store at admin@alongcomesababy.com or call at 360-671-5523.
Buzz, you’ll be happy to know that Alex and I stocked up on BPA free bottles. Wish us luck…the countdown is on, and any call I get now could be the One…
Nice work getting Scoble to read the article, too. That’s all it takes, eh?
Thanks Jordan .. good job on the BPA free.. we’re running down to Bellingham this weekend to reload at the cheaper US prices.
Thankfully Z is about to go to the bigger bottles and we had to get a new team anyway.
Best of luck to you and Alex.. and congrats on Strutta… TWO BABIES! Nice.
@jessica .. i dont know about toothbrushes, but we’re also worried about soothers! good lord.
Another suggestion could be to consider breastfeeding. We know there are plenty of health benefits to breastfeeding over formula and breastmilk doesn’t come in a plastic bottle! Of course, if you pump, you’ll want to make sure to store the breastmilk in a glass container.
Ahhhh .. if it was only as simple as that. “Just breastfeed.” It sounds sooooo easy. It’s not.
It doesn’t work for everyone - for some it’s impossible. Z didn’t take to breastfeeding and Jen trooped it out by pumping for OVER FIVE MONTHS.
So we didn’t really have a choice, and have moved forward in the best way we can.
thanks buzz for this.. i’ve linked it to my message mommy board
Pinky Blue in Richmond has a wide range of safe plastic bottles and the SIGG water bottles. We bought our son a couple of the Think Baby products as we had always used Avent and I think that the nipple shape on the Think Baby is as close as you can get to Avent.
Good Luck with your changeover. Lucky for us we are down to one bottle a day so we only had to get a couple new bottles.
This is awesome, Buzz. Thanks for emailing me to check it out.
I’m off to share this - you are a wealth of information on this topic for people like me who don’t get out much
[...] Bishop (Vancouver DJ extraordinaire) wrote a great post about BPA (dangerous plastics). Check it out. Plastic is drastic. Yo. These icons link to social [...]
Hi Buzz. This is the first time on your Blog and your info is great! Our son is a Zach too and when you refer to him as Z I have to laugh as our Zach is Z or wee Z as well! Anyways, this info is really appreciated and I will definitely be checking your Blog from now on! Keep up the good work and love listening to you on Crave - especially now that you are doing the baby thing - funny how they change our world!!
[...] Read this and protect your baby. I just threw out a lot of “7″ plastics. [...]
You believe an aluminum bottle is safe? The leaching of aluminum is extremely dangerous. I recommend that aluminum drinking containers be avoided.
-R
The stainless models are only in the larger sizes - we’re just doing our best over here…
Thanks Buzz for the information on BPA. I just got spent a couple hours reading it up and going to the Zrec blog to find out which baby bottles I should get. I’m expecting baby #2 in a couple of months and now am having to throw all my Avent bottles away. Do you know if Playtex Avance is BPA free?
One other point of note…where does the water that you’re putting into your and your childrens BPA-free containers come from? Canadian Springs? Or the tap?
Take a look at the # on the bottom of those big 18.5L bottles of Canadian Springs…it is also a 7…and those things sit in the heat/sun for who knows how long, and then they’re refilled/reused…so you may be doing yourself (and you children) a favour by getting rid of your old MEC, etc. Nalgene water bottles, but the water you put in them could be just as bad…
@ carmen I dont know about Playtex advance specifically. Jen did call Playtex yesterday to ask about our soothers, they said they’re BPA free. Call them.
Hi,
MEC carries stainless drinking bottles as does Natures Fare who steel bottles in all sizes - they even have them for baby bottles. I would avoid aluminium.
Thanks for the useful links. We have Sigg bottles for our kids and don’t worry about the Al, as the water-based coating on the inside has been very well tested. We also like the Klean Kanteen sippy (and the fact that it turns into a normal bottle later), though it can be a bit heavy for tiny hands. I’m trying to find a reasonable alternative to all the little plastic containers needed to send the kids’ lunches to daycare…
Buzz,
I too looked into Sigg water bottles but….I have also heard that aluminum water bottles are not good either. they seem to contain the same coating inside as pop cans and canned goods??????? I just bought stainless steel bottles for my kids and myself which I hear are the way to go. (expensive too - 21.95) Let me know what you think and i will definetely look furthur into this and keep you posted. Thank you for making all this info on BPA ’s available to us listeners. You are great!
Sincerely,
Denise
Hi Buzz! thanks for the info. Started checking into all the products we have in our home. Thankfully I was able to breastfeed our daughter for her first year so bottles aren’t an issue. I did however find out that the “microwaveable” tupperware rock’n’serve containers I use for my lunch everyday have BPA & by the company’s own admission on their website, it does leach into food but the levels are “acceptable”. Could it be that my lunch has been the reason we’ve had so much trouble trying for baby #2?…. I’m not going to take any more chances and will be getting rid of it. Only thing is, you can’t recycle the stuff. Does anyone know of where to take all this plastic other than put it in the garbage?
[...] other day my (Twitter) friend Buzz Bishop e-mailed me to alert me to a post that he had written about BPA (Bispehenol A), which is all about the bad plastics. You may have seen the link on my side blog, if you are one of [...]
Great Post, thanks for the information!
Jenn
Hi Buzz,
Thank you for all the good info. I linked to you through my sister Dutchblitz. I was so confused as to what was good and what was not but you cleared it up. But I gotta ask. 1,2,4 and 5 are better??? But still bad??
1 is single use only. 2, 4 and 5 are plastic, but don’t contain BPA. Honestly, I don’t know how comfortable I am with any plastics right now - especially if you’re popping them in the microwave, that’s where the damage is being done.
Playtex Advance are no good. Check their website, they are offering free samples of their drop-ins plus have a chart of all their products and wether they are BPA free or not. . TJ Kids and Toysrus both have Evenflo glass bottles for $3.79 (very reasonable compared to other options). Talked to Canadian Springs this morning. They are claiming that their bottles are safe for several reasons…1. They are not boiled clean, they first clean with mild cleanser and lukewarm water, then they are disinfected with Ozone. 2. At any sign of wear, they are recycled and not used again. I gotta admit I’m not 100% convinced with their answer though. Tupperware has this on their website. Rock n serve/heat and serve are “7″s…They are saying though that the amount of BPA in the plastic is minimal, thus they have no plans at the moment to recall or change anything. (this is what I hear from my consultant). http://order.tupperware.com/pls/htprod_www/tup_widget.show_page?fv_page_code=prodcodes&fv_section_name=help&fv_category_code=search&fv_item_category_code=200550
[...] isn’t new. When I was freaking out about BPA in baby bottles and drink bottles, all the info I was reading listed BPA as a common ingredient in the lining of canned [...]
[...] since I learned about the dangers of BPA, I pick up plastic items I see in shops and have a look at the recycle number on the bottom. If [...]