Bisphenol A back in the news

[Guest guest]

Interesting article. Question is, should we stop drinking bottled water?.......

Blame Canada for what may become another big health controversy, over bisphenol

A.

(Picture from the Emerald City Gazette, a soccer magazine.)

Canada is ready to call bisphenol A, which is found in many plastics including

water

bottles, a toxic chemical. This is based on animal studies showing it has an

impact on

hormones.

The impact has been well-known for decades. In fact Wikipedia notes Bisphenol A

was

studied in the 1930s as an estrogen agonist, meaning it increases the impact on

the body

of the basic female hormone.

A new study on this " chemical found everywhere " is a bit more sanguine, which

has had

no impact on those who write scary headlines.

That's because the National Toxicology Program report is more negative than a

report

last year which pooh-poohed concerns, only it turned out a company hired to do

the

analysis was also working for the chemical industry. (Ruh-roh.)

Despite the scary headlines the NTP report advises no action be taken against

bisphenol

A.

Still, the Canadian action is bound to spur public health advocates in the U.S.

to demand

something be done about bisphenol A, which is so common it's found in the urine

of 93%

of us.

Or we could just blame Canada.

http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=884

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A