There’s NOT a Great Future in Plastics
My apologies to fans of the movie “The Graduate“, but I am about to expel plastics from many areas of my life. Last week the National Toxicology Program of the Department of Health and Human Services endorsed the probability that certain plastics could cause hormonal, behavioral and neural harm to humans. Specifically, bisphenol A, or BPA is the evil chemical lurking in plastics we might be using everyday. And children have the greatest exposure levels.
From the report:
The highest estimated daily intakes of bisphenol A in the general population occur in infants and children. Infants and children have higher intakes of many widely detected environmental chemicals because they eat, drink, and breathe more than adults on a pound for pound basis. In addition, infants and children spend more time on the floor than adults and may engage in certain behaviors, such as dirt ingestion or mouthing of plastic items that can increase the potential for exposure.
Or how about because infants and children are ingesting food and drink that directly come in contact with plastics that contain BPA?
If you have a plastic bottle with #7 on the bottom stop using it immediately! Do you give your baby a bottle? How about a baby drinking formula from a #7 bottle that came from a #7 container? A double whammy! (And P.S., #3 and #6 plastics are also supposed to be suspect.)
Apparently concerns about the effects of BPA have resurfaced again and again over the last several years. Don’t you think the companies that cater to the tiniest, most fragile humans — the baby bottle manufacturers — would change the way they make their products if there was one iota of a possibility they could cause harm?
I was first alerted to the BPA issue several months ago as a lurker on Denise and Alan Fields’ Baby Bargains website. They issued a statement that due to recent reports, they could no longer recommend certain bottles that use #7 plastic, specifically Dr. Brown’s and Avent Natural Feeding system.
I breathed a sigh of relief that DD#2 was likely spared ingesting the chemical. As a stay at home mom, she had probably used only half a dozen bottles in her whole life. And all were from a brief — yet frighting — stay in the hospital PICU at 3 weeks of age. Looking on the bottom, they were #5 (a supposedly safe plastic.)
Unfortunately, my elder daughter did not fare so well. The same Baby Bargains book influenced me to use that Avent bottle system 5 years ago. She was fed from countless Avent bottles over the course of about a year while I was at work. I just cringe now to think about all she was exposed to. And I know what’s done is done and there’s nothing I can do about it now but I can’t help but be angry that I didn’t protect her from that harm. I just didn’t know any better. Hmmm, green peas anyone?
So now I don’t know if I can trust ANY plastic. Most don’t have numbers. Every time my daughters put a sippy cup to their mouth, I think — is it safe? They are kids — ALL their plates, cups, bowls and most utensils are plastic. My DD#2 is only 18 months and she puts plastic food toys in her mouth all the time. I don’t think I can keep them in the house anymore. But what are the alternatives? What else can withstand DD#2’s perfected discuss throw off her highchair? I’m on a quest to find it.
Finally, what do I do with all my rejected plastic? Can plastic baby bottles and sippy cups be recycled, or will they all just end up in a landfill or worse, future products? I certainly can’t in good conscience sell or give away the products like my dozens of baby bottles that I know to be hazardous. But what about the ones with no markings? Can I yard sale those to get them out of my house but not feel guilty about possibly hurting another child?
This has taught me a lesson. I should research more carefully before purchasing products that my children may come in direct contact with. Or I’ll be left once again holding the (plastic) bag.
