BPA in baby bottles, Independent front page

[styrofoam]

Very detailed piece in today's Indy about BPA in baby bottles and why Britain doesn't seem to be doing much about it.

tinyurl.com/ya4gy7x

And...

tinyurl.com/ye8hr4w

Was aluminium actually proved to cause breast cancer? I was under the impression that it was a scare story. Ben Goldacre says so here but that was in 2003. What's happened since?

I'd google but I expect to just end up with a load of 'everybody panic' pages! Any links to credible stuff?

(Have never used baby bottles, sorry about the hijack, but was interested when some posters referred to this.)

This is also helpful but re-iterates advice about not using recycling codes
3,6, 7 and using codes 1,2,4, and 5. Lots of cups and infant bowls are code 5 this is polypropylene and has no known hazards.

zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/05/sippy-cup-showdown-safer-bpa-free-sippy.html

AFAIK the aluminium / breast cancer issue is this:

significant levels of aluminium were found in samples from cancerous breasts, BUT these were never compared to levels in healthy breasts so to link them is unscientific. Until more control groups are studied it is like saying that 80% of cat owners eat cereal

still wondering about the black out blinds....

This looks like the Tommee Tippee first cup (which I and most people I know use) is fine.

zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/11/z-report-bpa-tommee-tippee.html

I was on the verge of throwing away our Tommee Tippee Easiflow cups of which we have about 8 as I thought they had BPA in them. They have a 7 on the bottom. I wonder why this is? Is the link above incorrect?

this is a government produced health leaflet in the US on how to avoid BPA.

here is a document containing many reference articles, it's a bit of a mess as I have just got home but all the evidence is there, this is not without evidence, quite the opposite.

this wikipedia article is very comprehensive

and yes off topic but aluminium does cause breast cancer (as do many toxins and also mammograms)

I think I might have answered my own question. This link shows that easiflow cups by tommee tippee plus a lot of their other products are BPA free. I think it was the older feeding bottles that had BPA in them.

www.tommeetippee.com.au/productsbpa.asp?bpa=1

Look we are surrounded by toxins on a daily basis, sadly. Shampoo, toothpaste, pollution, chemicals and additives in processed food, pesticides on fresh food, chemicals leaching into all drinks, all packaged food, chemicals in bottled water, serious chemicals and nasties in tap water, etc etc. There are so many toxins in our environment it seems sensible to me to limit exposure to the best of your ability. These are poisons and your children are ingesting/absorbing them so it is common sense to avoid them as much as possible once you become aware that they exist. Avoiding BPA is quite easy in the context of baby bottles but all plastics are potentially hazardous so glass really is the safest option. BPA is in many different products though, even in a tin of heinz beans, so it should be banned as it is in Canada, many US states and half of Europe. It makes me very angry that we even need to have this discussion when the government is well aware of the health implications of these contaminants and makes me even more angry when something poisonous is knowingly permitted for sale in baby and toddler items.

What containers are safe for freezing baby food in? Am currently using plastic but am worried now.

alyson I'd personally avoid anything plastic but certainly anything with a number 7 on the base. Tommee tippee would say they are safe, would they not. This is a battle of health vs wealth.

Someone asked what is safe to store/freeze EBM in, I always prefer glass but I have used medela breastmilk storage bottles which come in packs of 3 and are BPA free. Unless it says BPA free (and preferably phthalate free) on the packet don't use it

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Lottie there are hundreds of pieces of research some of which are named within the link I posted. Yet more research is readily available online and more research has been buried by big companies but has been done and the evidence is overwhelming. If you choose not to read the research, that is fine and is your decision. If you choose to read it all I think you will be quite shocked. The past does not matter today but it's important that people can look forward to a better future and a future that is not full of poisons for their children, this should never have been allowed in the first place.

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The state of california, just one example, has recently announced BPA is a chemical known to cause cancer and birth defects. here's a quick summary

here is some more basic info

I'm neither a scientist nor a professional but if you tell people their baby's health is already ruined by environmental poisons they are going to think 'Why should I bother not to smoke near them, then? Why would it matter if they ever get any fruit?'

Do you advise parents that 'We are all in deep, deep shit' as part of your job, divingintoeternity? I rather hope you don't deal with the public.

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l39, divingintoeternity is absolutely correct and I believe she was quite rightly showing a touch of humour in what is actually a very serious topic. I don't think most parents will think 'why bother' they may just be a little more vigilant in future. It was published many years ago, and it could have been banned many years ago. Those who have breastfed are not exempt from the issue as BPA like other toxins passes through breastmilk. That is why it should be banned here, no?

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glass and stainless steel are the only truly safe options, plastics are all a little dubious even the so-called BPA free plastics have other chemicals and often phthalates.

information on endocrine disruptors here which is what BPA is