So you've just thrown out your baby's plastic toys, but those bottles are safe, right? Wrong! It turns out they contain and leach out a chemical
called bisphenol A which is used to make clear plastic. Five popular
bottle brands were tested: Avent, Dr. Brown's, Evenflo, Gerber
and Playtex, and ALL FIVE were found to leach bisphenol A at levels
considered high enough to cause harm in numerous laboratory animal
studies (sorry, mice, so sorry, but then again, thank you).
Bisphenol A has been linked by scientists to cancers, impaired immune
function, early onset of puberty, obesity (WTF? Does everything cause
that?), diabetes and hyperactivity.
Is
nothing safe or sacred? Apparently not. I think I'll go hide in a
hole somewhere now. So what's a parent to do? The bottles
are all poison? Even many breast-fed babies use bottles
sometimes. Well, there's glass. That's still pretty safe,
aside from the obvious breakage-and-stepping-in-shards factor.
And there IS "safer" plastic. There's more information here at the site of Environment California,
a group working to require product manufacturer labeling and reforms in
chemical manufacturers' policies (but I still couldn't find which
plastics were considered "safer").
