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BPA-Free? Not So Much

Posted by Amy Kuras

We're all worried these days about bisphenol-A (or BPA), a chemcial that leaches from hard, clear plastic polycarbonate baby bottles and can cause disruptions ot the endocrine system
So what a fabulous idea from Amazon to open their BPA-Free Baby Store, gathering a selection of their products that don't use the chemical and putting them all in one place on the site.
Only one problem: Some of the products do contain BPA.
According to Z Recommends, which uncovered the problem, only four of 14 products lumped in the BPA-Free Store contained BPA, and of those, two had it in the handles or a flip-top that covered a sippy spout –in other words, areas that were unlikely to leach (BPA leaches when the plastic containing it is heated, which is why bottles are such a  concern).
Two of the others, though, were bottles: Gerber's ComfortHold bottle and Dr. Brown's standard bottle. In the case of the Dr. Brown's bottle, it may have been a mix-up –the company recently introduced a glass bottle and announced plans to release a BPA-free plastic one, but clicking on the product ID number went right to their polycarbonate models.
None of the manufacturers are claiming their products are BPA-free – Amazon, however, did. A quick check of Amazon before I posted this found the offending products gone from the BPA-Free Shop, nore did they come up in a search for "BPA-Free."

Z Recommends has a very detailed report on the issue on their site, so follow the link. Their main concern, and mine, is that people could be misled into buying bottles that have BPA in them. Being a smart consumer saves the day.


Comments

 

question said:

I'm not sure about all of this uproar about BPA.  I remember a lot of concern about the plasticizer used for PVC but it is still used everywhere.  My worry is they will switch to something else that may be even worse.  I think this whole thing is way overblown.

May 7, 2008 7:55 AM

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