View Full Version : BPA in Plastic
cravj1988
05-22-2009, 14:24
For those who cook with plastic bags and drink from plastic bottles, this article may be interesting. You may want to limit your exposure on a long thru hike.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090521141208.htm
mister krabs
05-22-2009, 15:15
what a bottle with BPA might not look like:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/05/090521141208.jpg
Dances with Mice
05-22-2009, 15:51
Yeah, that's not a polycarbonate bottle at all. Funny that it came from the linked website. I'd bet a month's salary that it's a PET bottle whith no BPA. Beer cans are lined with a coating containing BPA though. They should show the kid guzzling a brew.
I don't know of any polycarbonate plastic bags either.
We have gone thrugh the ups and downs on this subject. It seems to pop up every spring with the flowers :D
Maybe its just when the scientists get out of their labs and go hiking :D
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35516&highlight=BPA
Thanks for the reminder. We need to be on the look out for the Recycling #7. Get rid of those old Nalgine bottles. And don't drink water from an old plastic bottle that you leave in the car. An amazing thing is that drinking from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case on the trail or baby bottles, expect the levels to be considerably higher.
I know everything can kill you. If it doesn't matter to you, keep drinking from them. There is a reason REI quit selling those bottles.
JokerJersey
05-22-2009, 16:24
Just another one of those things that you need to sort through and dig around for the information yourself. When my girlfriend heard about this, she wanted to ditch all the plastic bottles and plastic storage containers we had. Emails about this have been circulating for years. Here's a few little bits I dug up from a Washington Post article linked off snopes.com. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082102029.html) Story is a little old, but haven't seen anything more recent saying that it has indeed been proven, still just more mixed reactions, with consumers saying one thing, some doctors saying another, and companies denying it outright.
Clear bottles are likely to include bisphenol A and have for decades. Periodically, however, environmental and consumer groups have questioned the chemical's safety. Those questions are arising again, even though the Food and Drug Administration says not to worry and the plastic industry stresses the chemical's many years of use.
Although no conclusive scientific evidence exists that bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in plastics, is harmful to children, last month a panel of the National Institutes of Health said exposure to the chemical raises "some concerns" for children.
Bisphenol A, known as BPA, has been found to cause cancer and reproductive damage in some animals.
If you're really worried, do a little research and make sure you do it responsibly, not just taking one side of the story, latching on to it, and treating it as gospel. The information is out there. :D
plastic bags
Freezer bags, sandwich bags and storage bags do not contain BPA.
BPA was/is a hardener. Bags are flexible, made of food grade polyethylene plastic.
BPA is used in many cans as a lining - as with beer cans. This lining is what prevents old school rusting that anyone over 30 remembers. Ya remember the cans that used to get nasty after rusting? YumYum! The food was wrecked inside and often turned new shades of color. No metal flavor either in your food.
CampGirl
05-22-2009, 17:33
For those who cook with plastic bags and drink from plastic bottles, this article may be interesting. You may want to limit your exposure on a long thru hike.
If you're worried about cooking in freezer bags, we have some Cook-In-Bags (http://www.packitgourmet.com/CookIn-Bags-p324.html) up on the site that are safe for use with boiling water. They come in three different sizes and have a zipper top and a gusset bottom so that they can stand up. Sarbar has given them a try and she says that they work great with her fabric cozies (http://www.trailcooking.com/store/cozies-and-accessories) too!
I'm one of those people who worries about BPA :eek: - I've replaced all of our plastic ware too!
There is a reason REI quit selling those bottles.
Yeah, the main manufacturers changed over to using Tritan and or similar, which is a copolyester plastic. That is why REI quit selling Lexan :rolleyes: REI had little to do with it. REI bottles are branded versions of Camelbak and Nalgene......
Yes, Packit's bags are quite nice - very sturdy, heavy duty and have most importantly, a pleated bottom! I appreciate that the meals they sell are coming in those bags now..since that means a number of the meals can be done bag style now!
Snowleopard
05-22-2009, 17:45
This is an interesting article and caused me to recheck what I'm using. Freezer bag cooking is probably BPA free. http://www.saranbrands.com/faq.asp#1 Ziploc, at least, is BPA free. There may be other problematic chemicals that leach out of a ziploc bag, but BPA won't be one of them. Check other brands websites to see if they have BPA.
Scientifically, the problem for deciding whether BPA is safe for humans is that we can't ethically do experiments on humans. Even if we could, humans are too long lived to be useful experimental animals. Most human cancers don't start to emerge until your 50s. Epidemiogical studies are difficult because everyone is exposed to BPA. Non-human animal studies show serious problems.
Other artificial estrogens have certainly caused serious health problems, e.g., Diethylstilbestrol (DES).
A very thorough scientific review is at http://www.loe.org/images/070803/Vandenberg%20Exposure%20Rep%20Tox%20resubmission.p df
Sources of BPA are water bottles, cans that have a liner, baby bottles, etc, and polycarbonates. Heating increases the leaching, reusing non-reusable water bottles apparently increases BPA leaching. I'm going to ditch my plastic tea kettle until I'm sure it isn't polycarbonate.
Freezer bags, storage bags, sandwich bags and flexible plastics do NOT contain BPA!!! BPA is a HARDENER that prevents shattering!
Bags are made of POLYTHENE.
Ziploc, Glad and Reynolds products are made in the USA as well.
Oops, mistyped above : Polyethylene Plastic
Dances with Mice
05-22-2009, 23:19
Freezer bags, storage bags, sandwich bags and flexible plastics do NOT contain BPA!!! BPA is a HARDENER that prevents shattering!
Bags are made of POLYTHENE.
Ziploc, Glad and Reynolds products are made in the USA as well. Yep. Just one little correction. [/Nerd] BPA is a plasticizer. It makes hard, brittle plastic softer and so prevents shattering. It's neither needed nor used in flexible plastics like polyethylene. [/End Nerd]
Hehheh...thanks. Nerd on! :D I was tired and couldn't think of the right word last night :D