Green Daily

Bisphenol-A, a chemical found in plastic bottles such as baby bottles, has been declared safe by the FDA again, after a revisit of the issue. FDA scientists maintain that the trace amounts of bisphenol-A that leach out of food containers are not a human health threat. Bisphenol-A had previously been declared safe by the FDA, but the agency chose to look at the chemical again after much ruckus over its possible adverse health effects.

For parents, this is a particularly important issue, since bisphenol-A is used in making those common, polycarbonate baby bottles and since infants are especially vulnerable to any chemical's effect due to their small body size. Bisphenol-A is thought to mimic estrogen; along with being found in various types of plastic bottles, it can also be found in the epoxy that lines some canned foods.

Environmental groups have criticized this recent FDA conclusion, which they claim relies on industry-funded studies. In the meantime, Canada intends to ban bisphenol-A in food and drink bottles and Wal-Mart aims to take all baby bottles with bisphenol-A off their shelves over the next year. And of course, there are a plethora of baby bottles out there now that do not contain bisphenol-A, including the old standby, glass.

What to do? Do your own research, and trust your gut. For more information, see our Green Baby Infant Feeding Guide here.

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