« Vegetarian Freezer Meals? | Home | Reusable Bag Shame »
BPA Controversy Revisited
By admin | May 28, 2008
I love hearing different sides of a story - especially out here in the blogosphere. Orignally, the chemical BPA was written about as clearly a health risk, with only a limited time before it was banned. Then of course Canada did ban the substance and now even Wal Mart of Canada is taking products containing BPA off the shelves.
However, now I am starting to see some informative articles that show the other side of the coin - there are many in the scientific community who don’t think the science behind the risk of BPA is strong enough to support banning or limiting it for consumer consumption. Over at Spiked Online, Nancy McDermott wrote “The Great American Baby Bottle Scare” which takes another look at the BPA issue. Apparently the science behind the risk of BPA is no where near uncontroversial and what I found most interesting was the information about how humans metabolize BPA much differently than lab rodents. Also, she brings up a good point that possibly in the case of BPA, fear is taking over for science.
“The problem with the BPA scare is not just that individual parents have been frightened out of their wits about a basically benign chemical, or even the potentially huge cost of identifying alternatives and scrapping entirely safe and effective manufacturing processes. The real problem with the BPA scare is the way it elevates fear above dispassionate consideration of the evidence, and makes it into an organising principle for all of society.”
I think looking at all sides of the issue helps take the fear level down a notch. True, I won’t be giving my daughter bottles or cups that are known to have BPA in them. It is a personal choice because I view this as one small risk where I can do some kind of risk management. However, I have to admit, this logic doesn’t work well on a major scale. When it comes to governments banning materials, I think the science needs to be strong and above being based on fear. All sides of the issue should be taken into consideration - especially rigorous and peer reviewed scientific studies. I question if the bans on BPA that are coming down the pipeline are based more on media created fear or scientific study.
What I think parents want more than anything is clear and easy to find information. We need to clearly label plastics, packaged foods and other items so parents can make a choice based on the research they have done. When parents can make informed choices, everyone wins.
Topics: Green Baby, Green Living |