That’s a question I have been asked several times in the past week, not by a crazed Nazi dentist, but by my sister and several colleagues. The “it” they are referring to is my reusable plastic water bottle, with the recycling number 7, made of polycarbonate that contains BPA (Bisphenol A). The National Toxicology Program (NTP), a part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, said in a recent draft report that there is “some concern” that BPA can cause changes in the brain, as well as reduce survival and birthweight in fetuses. The mainstream media grabbed a hold of this report and ran with it, causing many Americans to abandon all products containing BPA, including baby bottles and reusable water bottles. They called for companies to stop manufacturing products with BPA and asked stores to remove these products from their shelves in a panicked reaction to what seemed at the time to be a major threat to the health of us and our children. But an important detail of the report that the media failed to disclose was that the NTP drew its conclusions from limited evidence in animal studies, and that no tests for adverse reactions to BPA have been found in humans. In addition, just yesterday the FDA released a statement stating that plastic water bottles and baby bottles made with BPA are safe.
It seems like everyday we hear about something that will cause cancer or some other health problem, only to learn a week later that that particular product is safe, or in fact has health benefits. How do we know which report to believe? Take alcohol consumption for example. For every article that you read about the health benefits of consuming alcohol, there is another warning of its risks. Should we, upon reading the article on risks, immediately throw out all the Merlot and Chardonnay sitting in the wine cellar and demand that these products be taken off of store shelves and for companies to cease their manufacture? That is the type of knee-jerk reaction we saw with the BPA reporting. People grabbed onto the story that the media fed them and panicked without bothering to do further research themselves into the actual risks that BPA poses. My advice when you come across another article reporting negative results such as these? Take a deep breath, do a little bit of digging, and come to your own conclusions about the safety of any given product. As for me, I bought a new BPA-free water bottle (which I got more for the color than anything else), but my trusty BPA-laden water bottles that I’ve had for 10 years are still in my water bottle rotation.
