By Dr. Mercola Just when you thought you'd learned everything there was to learnabout how to avoid bisphenol-A (BPA), the endocrine-disruptingplastics chemical, new research shows that there's morehormone-disrupting bisphenols around you than you probably thought. In answer to consumers' demands to drop BPA from products, manymanufacturers have simply switched to using a different—butequally toxic and perhaps even more toxic—chemical called bisphenol-S (BPS). It May be BPA-Free, But What About BPS? BPA, an estrogenic plastic by-product used in the manufacture ofpolycarbonate plastics, can leach into food or drinks from theplastic containers holding them. BPA has been identified as anestrogen-mimicking compound since the 1930s, and is known to beparticularly dangerous for pregnant women, infants and children.
Infact, in the early 1930s BPA was used as an artificial estrogen tonot only fatten poultry and cattle, but as a form of estrogenreplacement therapy for women of the times. It was only in the1940s that Bayer and General Electric used BPA to hardenpolycarbonate plastics and make epoxy resin. It has since become one of the world's highest production volume chemicals and has been widely reported in the media as being asuspected disruptor of your body's hormones. Canada, in September 2010, declared BPA as a toxic substance, butto date no other country has followed suit, although BPA has beenbanned in baby bottles in Europe and the US. As a result of thewidespread consumer backlash, however, many companies have rolledout "BPA-free" plastic products, ranging from bottles and sippycups to reusable water bottles, meant to appeal to thosehealth-conscious consumers looking to avoid toxins.
Unfortunately, this may be just a ruse, as studies now show anotherbisphenol, bisphenol-S (BPS), is now showing up in human urineconcentrations at levels similar to those of BPA. i This suggests that many manufacturers are simply swapping onebisphenol for another. BPS May be Less Known, But That Doesn't Make it Less Toxic Similar to the way food manufacturers label a bag of gummy bears as"fat-free," implying it's good for you while staying silent aboutthe massive amounts of sugar they contain, plastics manufacturerscan legally make it appear their products are safe by labeling themBPA-free, even though they may contain BPS, or another similartoxic chemical, that they don't mention. More corporate lies ofomission that can and do hurt your health.
In the case of BPS, there's reason to believe it is just asdangerous to human health, and possibly more so, than BPA, althoughthe research is not nearly as abundant just yet. Writing in thejournal Toxicology In Vitro, researchers stated: ii "In 2011, the European Commission has restricted the use ofBisphenol A in plastic infant feeding bottles. In a response tothis restriction, Bisphenol S is now often used as a component ofplastic substitutes for the production of babybottles. One of themajor concerns leading to the restriction of Bisphenol A was itsweak estrogenic activity.
By using two highly standardisedtransactivation assays, we could demonstrate that the estrogenicactivity of Bisphenol A and Bisphenol S is of a comparablepotency." Not only does BPS appear to have similar hormone-mimickingcharacteristics to BPA, but research suggests it is actuallysignificantly less biodegradable, and more heat-stable andphoto-resistant, than BPA. GreenMedInfo reports: "... while regulators wait for manufacturers who promote theirproducts with "BPA-Free!" stickers at the same moment that theyinfuse them with BPS to voluntarily reformulate,there isevidence now that BPS may actually have worse effects to environmental and humanhealth, alike.. " ..
BPS' relative inability to biodegrade indicates: 1) once it isabsorbed into the human body, it may accumulate there for longerperiods of time. 2) it is more likely to persist in theenvironment, making external exposures to it, and its manymetabolites, much more likely than the faster degrading BPA. Inother words, its potential to do harm will worsen along the axis of time , not lessen, which is a common argument made for the purported"safety" of BPA." Just How Many Chemicals are Lurking in Your BPA-Free Plastic? You would think labeling a product "BPA-Free" would be some measureof protection against ingesting toxic plastic by-products, but itturns out that tests on plastics using this label have not beenconducted under real-world conditions like running the plasticsthrough a dishwasher or heating them in a microwave. In a study meant to simulate "real-world" use, 95 percent of allplastic products tested positive for estrogenic activity, meaningthey can still disrupt your hormones even if they carry a BPA-freelabel.
Even more disconcerting is the finding that BPA-freeplastics in some cases leached more BPA than the non-BPA free plastics. iii In some cases, instead of actually removing BPA from theirproducts, manufacturers are only taking out a percentage of it,which means we're still being exposed to it, only now inundisclosed amounts. The truth is there's an alphabet soup of toxicchemicals in almost everything you come in contact with, fromplastics to PVC water lines to canned goods, which are lined withBPA-containing plastic. Thermal receipt paper, all world papercurrency and those sealants your dentists want to put on your andyour children's teeth also are primary sources of BPA exposure.
But again, BPA is not the only culprit; it's simply the most highlypublicized one. There's also Bisphenol AB and AF, Bisphenol B andBP, Bisphenol C, Bisphenol E, F, G, M, S, P, PH, TMC and, yes,there's even a Bisphenol Z. Any one of these can be in yourBPA-free baby bottle or sippy cup, unfortunately. Who's Minding the "BPA-Free" Store? Now that BPA-free products are beginning to flood the market, youmay be interested to know that we actually know relatively littleabout what's really in these new plastics, and what little we doknow comes right from the manufacturers.
The Atlantic reported: iv " ... because the U.S. system of regulating chemicals reliesprimarily on information supplied by a material's manufacturer, weknow relatively little about these new plastics. "... Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S.
lawthat regulates chemicals in commerce, it's entirely permissible tolaunch a new material into high-volume production withoutdisclosing its precise chemical identity or any information aboutits toxicity. This makes it impossible for the public to assessproduct safety independently of manufacturer claims. And currently,despite EPA and FDA policies that support "safe" alternatives to achemical of concern like BPA, neither federal agency conductssafety testing of new materials destined for consumer productsbefore they come on the market." So it's very much an anything goes attitude when it comes to thechemicals used in countless consumer products. Until the systemchanges – if the system changes – your safest bet is to avoid plasticproducts as much as possible.
Glass is One of the Best Alternatives If you're interested in avoiding any number of chemical toxinsleaching into your food and beverages, choose glass over plastic,especially when it comes to products that will come into contactwith food or beverages, or those intended for pregnant women,infants and children. This applies to canned goods as well, whichare a major source of BPA (and possibly other chemicals) exposure,so whenever you can, choose jarred goods over canned goods, or optfor fresh instead. Another good idea is to ditch plastic teethingtoys for your little ones and choose natural wood or fabricvarieties instead. To be fair, you probably can no longer completely eliminate yourexposure to BPA, BPS and similar toxins (since they're likely inour air, water, and food, too) but you can certainly reduce yourexposure dramatically by making informed choices like thosedescribed above.
References: i Environmental Science & Technology June 7, 2012 ii Toxicol In Vitro. 2012 Aug;26(5):727-31 iii Environmental Health Perspectives March 2, 2011 (Epub Ahead ofPrint) iv The Atlantic April 13, 2011.
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