“BPA-Free” is a popular buzzword these days, but a new study shows it’s more hype than help.
Scientists conducted lab tests on more than 20 top-brand baby bottles and more than 450 plastic food and beverage-packages and found virtually all leached chemicals that acted like the hormone estrogen, even though many were free of BPA. These chemicals—called endocrine disruptors—falsely tell the body’s cells that the hormone estrogen is around, potentially causing all sorts of troubling developmental and reproductive consequences.
Baby bottles, plastic bags, plastic wrap, clamshell food containers, stand-up pouches…just about all plastic food and beverage containers were found to contain chemicals that have estrogenic effects.
Researchers bought hundreds of plastic food and beverage containers at Target, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and other major retailers. More than 90 percent of the products leached estrogenic chemicals before they were even put through stresses
The paper noted that some of the chemicals that are used to replace BPA have been shown to have even more estrogenic activity than BPA does.
Hi Debra,
Wouldn’t plastic containers like tupperware be considered not safe to store food in? Wouldn’t tupperware be considered an endocrine disruptor? Our landlord has thrid stage ovarian cancer and has lots of tupperware in the house? Could that pose a threat to her health? And she also has plastic containers that slide out to open to put things in them. Would that also pose a threat to her health?
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
“Tupperware” is a brand name used on many different items made from a variety of different plastics. Tupperware items would only be endocrine disruptors if they were made from plastics that contain endocrine disruptors. On their website, Tupperware states only that their plastics are BPA-free. One would need to research what plastic is used on each individual item.