Out Damn BPA! Out I Say!

Apologies to W. Shakespeare....

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have likely heard something about BPA (aka Bisphenol A). BPA has been around for 50+ years and is commonly found in plastics. People, it's frigging EVERYWHERE. Baby bottles, containers, epoxy resins (which are found in almost all food and beverage cans), sports equipment, medical and dental equipment (mouth guards anyone?), dental fillings, plastic toys, CDs, DVDs, eyeglass lenses, electronic appliances, yada, yada, yada. You get my drift. Why all the fuss? Well, there's a lot to say about why BPA sucks....but I'll give you the Cliff Notes version here (and for more depressing details, you can visit Wikipedia).

BPA has so far been shown (and in many cases proven with solid data to back it up) to be the cause of or contributing factor in just about every illness known to humankind: obesity, neurological issues (impacting memory, mood, learning, and hyperactivity), thyroid problems, breast cancer, prostrate cancer, heart disease, reproductive issues (infertility in males and females, increase risk of miscarriage). There's more but I just don't have the heart to type it all out.

To alleviate my feelings of parental neglect, I have spent the past year or so completely weeding BPA out of our home to the best of my ability. I don't plan to toss out our CD/DVD collection. Nor am I going to trash our home electronics. But there are a lot of other items I have been able to remove and replace with minimal impact to myself. For those of you interested in doing the same, allow me to share a few tips and tricks:

Farewell My Tupperware!
Aside from the great baby bottle switch of 2007 (we now only use Born Free bottles), I also took it upon myself to completely trash all plastic food and drink containers. Finding a replacement was a bit of a drag. Say what you will about plastic (and as you can see, there is a LOT to say) it's easy to clean and lightweight which is a good thing when it comes to food/drink storage. Rumor has it there are some great stainless steel options out there. But I opted to go the tempered glass route and chose Anchor Hocking storage containers. Mine are the older glass lid/bottom sets (before they began creating glass containers with BPA-free plastic lids) but I think I still prefer these because they are multi-purpose: I can store food in them...I can also pop them in the oven. They are heavy (downside) but it takes a LOT to break one of these puppies (believe me, we've tried). Oh, and while I'm on the topic of food containers, we also got rid of our hard plastic water dispenser for the fridge and replaced it with a stainless steel version w/ ceramic lid.

Hasta La Vista Canned Foods
We're not a soda family and when we do have soda around the house, its typically something that comes in a glass bottle, not a can. Turns out this is a good thing because, as previously mentioned, canned beverages are almost always lined with BPA-containing epoxy resin. But like most families in this country (and around the world) our pantry was lined with at least a dozen cans of various foods (beans, tomatoes, etc). I also had several of those boxed broth containers (also BPA-laden). As with canned drinks, canned foods are nothing more than BPA receptacles. It makes no difference whether the food is organic or not. And the canned foods with the highest amounts of BPA are generally those with the most acids in them: tomatoes, tomato-based sauces, soups, raviolis, and, oddly, green beans. To make matters worse, reliable sources claim most of us are getting the majority of our BPA via canned foods and drinks. So what can you do? Well, I tossed out the canned goods and started buying what I could in glass jars (some tomato products do come in glass bottles...barring that, try fresh "canned" products ) and I increased the amount of fresh produce we purchased each week. As for my broth, I use this which comes in a handy glass container. I confess I still use a lot of frozen produce (peas, green beans) and I suspect, but have not confirmed, the bags are not made of good plastic. Baby steps, my friends...

Adieu Cheap Plastic Toys
As long as we have someone in our house who delights in stuffing random things into her mouth, I am all about eradicating as many plastic toys as humanly possible. It's not just the BPA that concerns me...so many of the cheap toys out there contain high levels of lead and cadmium that I figure I'm doing the whole family a favor by keeping that tacky shit far from our toybox. But I have to be VERY careful as to how I do this. Thing is, cheap crap keeps infiltrating our home in the form of party favors, dentist and doctor's office trinkets, and well-meaning grandparents/friends. And these are the items M seems to fixate on with laser-like precision. So little by little, I have very stealthily been making mardi gras beads, princess crowns, battery-operated necklaces, clip-on earrings, and other bits and pieces disappear without a trace. And just as carefully I have been replacing said items with safer items made of wood or cloth. Of course, this isn't always a guarantee of safety...even Melissa and Doug have recently come under fire due to high lead levels in some of their toys. But it's a good place to start.

Auf Wiedersehen Plastic Baggies
The most recent items to come under fire in my home are plastic bags: Ziplocks and their ilk. I confess, this one is pretty tough to manage. Sure, I had no problem getting rid of plastic sandwich bags (enter these) or those plastic produce bags at the grocery store (enter these). But what do you do when you need a resealable plastic bag to store something in? I'm still searching...

Well, that's it my friends. For those of you who don't have kids (and probably those of you who do), I probably sound like a total wack-a-doo. But hey, the worst that could happen by my doing all this is nothing. And the best? My family and I might end up being just a tad healthier. It's worth a try!