Strollerderby

The Poison Bottle: Canada and Walmart Take BPA Off Market

Posted by Cole Gamble

Thanks to Canada’s proposed ban on plastic baby bottles with the chemical BPA, Walmart stores have announced they look to have such bottles free from their stores by next year.

 

Playtex, manufacturer of baby bottles, has also jumped aboard the anti-BPA bandwagon, announcing the company will discontinue BPA products by years end.

 

BPA, or bisphenol A, is a common plastic component  found in dental sealants, baby bottles, the liners of food cans, CDs and DVDs, eyeglasses, water bottles and hundreds of household goods. If you are not familiar with the possible dangers of BPA, check out Amy’s  or Madeline's post. Among the concerns over BPA addressed in a recent report from the U.S. government's National Toxicology Program are changes in behavior and the brain, early puberty and possibly precancerous changes in the prostate and breast.

 

While the National Toxicology Program’s findings have found the evidence of BPA damage in animal tests to be “limited” this report states the possible effects on humans “cannot be dismissed.”

 

Evidence of BPA’s dangers has been around for a while, but this is the first major government initiative to get them out of circulation. How about you, have you been BPA free for a while or is this all news to you?

 

On a complete unrealted note, take a look at thebaby picture in this post. Are those infant's ears pierced? Who does that?

 

Photo: www.growingkids.co.uk


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Comments

 

Lorraine said:

I live in Canada and I have just recycled all bpa products....

I am not a doctor or a scientist but I have always said that the drastic increase in autism in the past 20 years (isn't the rate 1 in 160 kids now???) has to be as a result of something that we are ingesting that we think is safe but isn't.

Could this be it?!?!?!

April 23, 2008 12:05 PM
 

bz said:

We returned all our bpa bottles and got FULL REFUNDS no questions asked.

www.buzzbishop.com/.../take-your-bpa-bottles-to-london-drugs

However I am still sick the companies lace their announcements with "there's really nothing wrong with bpa"

rhetoric.

www.buzzbishop.com/.../canada-first-to-take-action-against-bpa

April 23, 2008 12:18 PM
 

Ashers mom said:

My son never took a bottle-not that we didn't try, I guess he really took the "Breast is Best" campain to heart, so we dodged a bullet there.  We are using the Born Free cups for him and use BPA free everything else for him.  We also got rid of our plastic water bottles and replaced them with Siggs (and that is what our moms are getting for mother's day).

I saw a government "expert" on the Today show telling everyone not to worry and not to change anything.  I think that taking the extra step and being careful is an okay thing to do and may just border on the smart thing to do.

April 23, 2008 12:21 PM
 

Treespeed said:

Regarding the picture on this article: Do people really pierce the ears of such young babies? Yikes.

April 23, 2008 12:45 PM
 

Joy said:

Ear piercing for babies is common in many cultures, so let's not judge that decision, please.

April 23, 2008 1:00 PM
 

mistress_scorpio said:

Babies R Us is also discontinuing BPA bottles by year's end.

April 23, 2008 1:33 PM
 

Treespeed said:

This is a great example of consumers voting with their wallets instead of waiting around for government regulation to catch up to the science. The companies that make the inevitable changes now will reap the economic benefits and the goodwill of their customers. While others will just keep parroting the need for more research and the lack of a true link.

In regards to the ear piercing, I wasn't making a judgement, just an observation. The argument that we can't discuss this issue, because other cultures accept the practice is the same argument used in defense of female circumcision. I'm not comparing the two, but just because some cultures accept a practice doesn't mean it's still not up for discussion or judgement. I find the piercing interesting as I have multiple piercings and my sweet wife doesn't even have her ears pierced. I find it interesting that someone would make this decision for a child before they can give any consent.

April 23, 2008 2:01 PM
 

Cassie said:

If you breastfed you dodged no bullet.  It is in the cans our food and their food is packaged in.  I threw out all our can goods except for Eden foods last week because they dont use it in the linings. So if you ate any canned food while pregnant, your baby still gots loads of the stuff from you.  If you ever fed them Chef Boyardee or Amy's Soup they got it then, too.  I agree with the first poster.  I think it is linked to a lot of disorders.

April 23, 2008 3:25 PM
 

Ashers mom said:

Since I don't eat canned food, I guess I really did dodge the bullet...

April 23, 2008 3:46 PM
 

Bean's mom said:

I've tried to minimize my use of BPA as much as possible but it is difficult to be completely clean of it because BPA is in so many products.  In addition to canned foods and bottles, it is also in the my Ameda breastpump, the lining of formula cans (even powder), in the lids of many food jars, in Tupperware containers.  I am relieved that I breastfed my daughter because her exposure to BPA will be less than a lot of other children.  Still, it upsets me that she has any exposure at all. There's not much I can do, however.

As much as I dislike BPA, there is no evidence that BPA is linked to autism.

Asher's mom, you say you never eat canned food but do you ever eat in restaurants?  I am sure the cook's have used some canned tomatoes or canned beans or even tuna in preparation of the food.

I am grateful that Canada has taken this initiative against BPA because companies now are financially motivated to remove BPA from their products; they won't want to lose such a large market.

With regards to the baby with earrings, I guess the parents in my culture are subject to condemnation.  I am Latin American and it is the norm in those countries to pierce the ears of baby daughters.

April 23, 2008 6:08 PM
 

Treespeed said:

Bean, no condemnation, I'm just curious. How old are the girls when their ears are pierced?

April 23, 2008 6:13 PM
 

Bean's mom said:

My ears were pierced in the hospital, soon after my mother gave birth to me.  I think that is when most girls in my country get their ears pierced.

April 23, 2008 7:14 PM
 

Cassie said:

Part of my family is from India and we also pierce our baby's ears when they are infants.  We also give them a tiny gold bracelet soon after birth to wear.  Gorgeous.

April 23, 2008 9:20 PM
 

boop said:

My parents pierced my ears a week after I was born - most latin baby girls have pierced ears. I'd do it if I had a daughter too -- I think it looks cute. It's really silly to even equate it with something like female (or male) circumcision, since it's such an easily reversible thing.

April 24, 2008 12:28 AM
 

Joy said:

Sorry, treespeed, I wasn't trying to shut down overall discussion on the ear piercing issue, I just thought that the article's end line, "WHO DOES THAT?" seemed really harsh, given that the answer is "thousands of people all over the world."

April 25, 2008 2:01 PM
 

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May 13, 2008 1:16 PM

About Cole Gamble

Cole Gamble’s writings on the crimes of Willy Wonka, man-eating beds and tales from his cringe-worthy life appear here on Babble, the humor site Cracked, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post and Salon. He is working on a book entitled, Conquer Everything! A Self Help Book to Destroy All Other Self Help Books and Grant You Mastery in Everything.

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