Plastic Containers for Food or Drinks is a Bad Idea

This morning I heard in the news that there is a chemical in plastic bottles or containers that may lead to diabetes or heart disease, according to a scientific study. This particular study was done using humans instead of animals. Bisphenol A or BPA is a form of synthetic estrogen that some plastic containers have. Of course there are some scientists that disagree about the dangers... The FDA is not giving this study much importance, but researchers say that most Americans are exceeding exposures to BPA, than what the Environmental Protection Agency recommends.

There is particularly a concern for babies, since they are most likely to get exposed to this chemical the most. The bottles for their formula, pacifiers, sippy cups and chew toys are just a few of the plastic materials used by babies. There is also a concern regarding bottled water. Some packaging includes plastic that you normally would not notice, such as soup and vegetable cans. They have plastic lining inside them. The containers used to preserve your leftovers is another example of containers that could have BPA in them.

What are we to do? BPA is not found in all plastic products. Consumers can't really tell which are safe and which are not... Well, I always preferred bottled milk over the plastic containers they use now. I also think that mayonnaise, peanut butter and other foods taste much better when they are packaged in glass containers. When it comes to packaging food, I think we were on the right path 50 years ago. Let's just use the plastic containers for things like shampoo, lotion, windex and other products that we actually don't eat!