Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Medicine Science

BPA Leaches From Polycarbonate Bottles Into Humans 251

Linus the Turbonerd sends in the bulletin that BPA, a toxic chemical used in the production of polycarbonate, the plastic composing hard, clear water bottles, has been found to leach out of such containers, directly into the water that their users consume. "In addition to polycarbonate bottles, which are refillable and a popular container among students, campers and others and are also used as baby bottles, BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. ... 'We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher. This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA's endocrine-disrupting potential,' said Karin B. Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

BPA Leaches From Polycarbonate Bottles Into Humans

Comments Filter:
  • Re:Old? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Philip K Dickhead ( 906971 ) <folderol@fancypants.org> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @03:58PM (#28077107) Journal

    This is a new study, just published. It confirms earlier indications that BPA's are far from inert and it adds data to specific scenarios whereby they are transmitted for ingestion.

    Many manufacturers have dropped BPA for reasons of public-relations.

    Replaced by?

    Other unproven, untested and highly suspect additives for 'softening' and 'pliability'.

  • Re:Old? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24, 2009 @04:04PM (#28077139)

    If the resin identification code is a 3 or a 7, you are going to die!!!

    Thankfully soda bottles are typically type 1.

  • soy milk (Score:4, Interesting)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquare@gma i l .com> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @04:08PM (#28077153) Homepage Journal

    has genistein

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genistein [wikipedia.org]

    genistein is a potent estrogen mimic

    Effects in males

    Isoflavones can act like estrogen, stimulating development and maintenance of female characteristics or they can block cells from using cousins of estrogen. In vitro studies have proven genistein to induce apoptosis of testicular cells at certain levels, thus raising concerns about effects it could have on male fertility.[10]

    soy has been used in many cultures for thousands of years

    where is the faux outrage about how soy is going to destroy the world?

    not that i think we shouldn't get rid of BPA. get rid of BPA, please. the positives it enables are outweighed by the negatives. same with transfats, same with DDT: get rid of these substances form our food supply and our environment. just do it without the drama

    but i don't see why this pantytwisted fear-addled panic is supposed to help anyone or anything

  • Re:Delicious Uranium (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MicktheMech ( 697533 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @04:11PM (#28077187) Homepage
    Soda bottles are made fomr PET. BPA is found in hard plastics like PC (as specifically stated in the summary.) There is absolutely no Bisphenol A in your soda bottles. Congratulations, you've fallen into the same form of mass hysteria that leads people to censor games or the internet (a la Thailand) whenever a kid shoots someone/commits suicide.
  • Good old glass (Score:2, Interesting)

    by moon3 ( 1530265 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @04:12PM (#28077205)
    I knew it, I knew it, glass bottled beer ftw.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24, 2009 @04:49PM (#28077463)

    There was an interesting article on NPR recently where they looked at premature infants who were on heart-lung machines whose tubing all used such BPA. These kids had much higher levels than other kids in their systems. 15 years later there were no detectable problem with their reproductive systems. Granted the study size was small, but there is clearly no dramatic effect from significantly larger levels than adults get from using water bottles.

  • by RandomChars ( 1455331 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:07PM (#28077565)
    http://2008.igem.org/Team:University_of_Alberta [igem.org] This project was about creating a synthetic organism that would be able to detect and destroy this stuff
  • by QuoteMstr ( 55051 ) <dan.colascione@gmail.com> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:13PM (#28077621)

    Not anywhere near quickly enough, considering that the vast majority of polycarbonates still contain BPA. As long as the cost saving of BPA exceeds the sales lost, companies won't move a bit. Parents with young children tend to be hyper-vigilant, so sure, companies will remove BPA from baby bottles. But people don't pay as much attention to other products.

  • great news. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DragonTHC ( 208439 ) <Dragon@gam e r s l a s twill.com> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:23PM (#28077717) Homepage Journal

    first and foremost, you can suck it, FDA! suck it hard!

    You knew this all along and you put us all in danger due to corporate influences.

    We should now be able to see the FDA chief, who allowed BPA to continue in products, put in jail for gross negligence.

  • Re:Delicious Uranium (Score:4, Interesting)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:34PM (#28077807) Homepage Journal

    Soda bottles are made fomr PET.

    Oh, Good. [nih.gov]

  • half-life (Score:4, Interesting)

    by spikenerd ( 642677 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:39PM (#28077849)
    So what's the half-life of one of these bottles when full of water? Eventually, most of the BPA will be leached out, and the bottle will become safer. Does this take months, or years?
  • by nametaken ( 610866 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @06:41PM (#28078295)

    From Nalgene... I've bolded the part I found interesting.

    Question: Why is Nalgene transitioning from polycarbonate to other materials?
    Answer: [Blah, blah, blah] Our decision to phase out production of the Outdoor line of polycarbonate containers is in response to consumer demand for products that do not include Bisphenol-A (BPA).

    We are confident that the bottles which contain BPA are safe for their intended use. However, because of consumer requests for alternative materials, we have decided to transition our polycarbonate product line to Eastman Tritanâ copolyester. This product joins our family of bottles and containers made of various non-BPA materials such as HDPE, PP, LDPE and PET.

    [Blah, blah, blah]

    Based on the findings of the Food and Drug Administration, The Environmental Protection Agency, The European Food Safety Authority, The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, The Japan Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare, The American Plastics Council and other reliable sources from around the world, we continue to firmly believe in the safety of our products containing BPA. However, we intend to carefully monitor the results of the National Toxicology Report and the Canadian government's inquiry into this issue and any other relevant scientific information.

    Now I'm not sure the Plastics Council is a group I'd want to get my info from, but the rest sound somewhat compelling. So what's the deal, yes it leaches, but it's not necessarily harmful? I wouldn't want to be a sucker for some company's BS, but what's the deal with groups above?

  • Re:Old? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Philip K Dickhead ( 906971 ) <folderol@fancypants.org> on Sunday May 24, 2009 @06:41PM (#28078299) Journal

    Corn Syrup.

    Michael Pollan has got the number on that. Backed by European studies on endocrine dysfunction and appetite distortion.

  • Can linings (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bloody Peasant ( 12708 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @06:58PM (#28078437) Homepage

    Most canned foods (soups, beans, etc.) have a BPA-laden liner too. There was one company whose name escapes me right now that used a safer natural* lining. It's for this reason I swore off any canned soup (even the so-called healthy ones) well over a year ago.

    * If you like beans, beans and more beans, this was fine, but the company didn't make the chicken soup I wanted :-(

  • Re:half-life (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dahamma ( 304068 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @07:07PM (#28078479)

    Not as long as the half life of this story, apparently! (I tossed my Nalgene bottle a year ago, and my coworkers were stunned I hadn't already heard of the hazard...)

  • Re:Old? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24, 2009 @07:45PM (#28078697)

    Yes:
    http://www.ewg.org/reports/bpatimeline

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24, 2009 @08:40PM (#28079013)

    Most people here seem to think that the BPA in bottles and linings is harmful. I work in a lab that tests the low-dose exposure effects of BPA on mice. I personally drink from cans lined with BPA-laden plastics all the time, because the dose-response curves I've seen indicate that the risk of harm from BPA is negligible.

    There are plenty of other estrogenic compounds that you all consume in much higher quantities, so if you care about your BPA intake, you are misinformed. I'd like to thank the science news cycle [phdcomics.com] for that.

  • Re:Old? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by mozzis ( 231162 ) on Sunday May 24, 2009 @09:07PM (#28079159) Homepage
    Your're a big fucking idiot. Nalgene is dropping BPA because they are, or think they will be, losing sales because people are afraid that BPA is dangerous. But their fears are contrary to 50 years of research which have not identified any toxic effects. Their statement http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/technical/bpaInfo.html/ [nalgene-outdoor.com] says exactly this. Do you have any facts to back up your assertion to the contrary, or is disagreeing with your worldview enough to earn one of your epithets?
  • by Bones3D_mac ( 324952 ) on Monday May 25, 2009 @02:24AM (#28080549)

    What kind of symptoms would someone experience or exhibit if poisoned by this?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25, 2009 @03:30AM (#28080813)

    Apparently I'm still an idiot, since I've been pointing out for well over a decade that all plastics leach toxic chemicals into whatever is stored in them.

    If that happens to be food or drink, than it's not a good thing for the consumers.

    It started in 1963 with two female researchers (can't find my sources right now), who presented information that the plasticizers in soft plastic containers leached into the contents, and they were laughed at and not taken seriously.

    You need some serious study of the history of toxicology, because a common theme throughout that history is that the "messengers" are almost always "shot" for years before the common mind awakes to the realization that whats been said is actually true, disruptive as it may be.

    And if you can open your mind enough you also might want to read this: Chemical Safety Bibliography -- Risk assessment and management [uchicago.edu] and Chemical Exposure and Human Health, C. Wilson, McFarland [ciin.org].

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

Working...