You consider yourself a health-conscious, responsible person. You strive to take care of yourself and your family by keeping your home reasonably clean, preparing healthy meals and avoiding junk food as much as possible. You’ve heard about the dangers of BPA, and you avoid storing leftovers and other foods in plastic containers. But despite your best efforts, hidden BPA and endocrine disruptors are still affecting the health and well-being of your family. How can that be?

What on earth is BPA??

BPA (bisphenol-A) is a synthetic estrogen used in making many plastic products like plastic bottles, baby bottles, children’s toys and even medical devices. It is also part of the epoxy resin that lines many metal cans, like those used for canned vegetables, fruits and meats.

Remember learning about hormones in high-school biology? They taught us about the endocrine system, a net of hormones and glands that regulate our bodies. We mostly think about this system in regard to puberty, pregnancy or menopause, but it actually plays a key role in every stage of development throughout our lives. But here’s the thing — synthetic chemicals used in everything from plastics to cleaning products, fragrances and even the food we eat actually mimic our hormones and interfere with or disrupt our delicate hormonal balance. We’re all exposed to these chemicals daily and the most vulnerable among us are pregnant women and kids.

So, what does BPA do to the body?

BPA is among the most controversial chemicals in use today. For the 1,455 U.S. adults tested, the more BPA in their urine, the higher their rates of heart disease and diabetes, according to research by a British team of scientists published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They also found a link between abnormal liver enzymes in people and BPA, suggesting that the chemical alters how the liver functions.

A recent study published in the Nature Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology found that hormone-disrupting chemicals are so widely used in the manufacture of so many products that just avoiding plastics with BPA is probably not enough to protect us. But before you shrug your shoulders and chalk it up to a problem that’s beyond your control, check out these recommendations from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for things you can do to reduce your exposure:

• Wash your hands frequently and especially before meals with soap and water, but avoid using anti-bacterial or soap with fragrances. (They say if you do nothing else, do this one thing because you’ll rinse a substantial amount of chemical residue away.)
• Dust and vacuum often using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter, which traps small particles of dust rather than blowing them around the house.
• Become a fragrance-free household. Buy fragrance-free soaps, shampoos, etc. and stop using those fancy scented air fresheners. Instead, open windows, use fans, empty trash frequently and use natural odor eliminators like orange peels in the garbage disposal and baking soda in the fridge.
• Use glass food containers to store leftovers or pantry staples, buy reusable lunch bags instead of using baggies. You can even replace plastic wrap with beeswax-coated cloth. Anytime a product you need is made of plastic, research alternatives.
• Try to buy organic food as much as you can and stick to whole foods instead of processed ones.
• Avoid non-stick cookware.
• Filter your tap water to decrease its levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and don’t drink plastic-bottled water, no matter how much better for you its distributors claim it is.
• Store receipts, movie tickets printed on thermal paper have traces of BPA in them. If you handle receipts, wash your hands well before dipping your hand into that bag of popcorn. Refuse your copy of a store receipt when asked.
• The inside lining of baby food jars usually contain BPA. Consider make your own baby food. It is healthier for your baby at many levels, not just BPA.
• Toilet paper is often made from recycled paper, which often contains BPA. Installing a hand bidet sprayer is an easy and safer option to reduce the use of toilet paper.
• Pay attention to the beer and wine you imbibe. If alcoholic beverages are fermented in BPA lined vats they can become contaminated with the chemical.

Hopefully in time, our politicians and regulatory agencies will catch up with the scientific community and force manufacturers to clean up their acts. In the meantime, follow the guidelines above and protect yourself and your loved ones as much as you can.

Want to know if a product that you are using contains BPA? Search on the Environmental Working Group’s website.

Resources:

http://www.naturalnews.com/039593_endocrine_disruptors_BPA_food.html and https://www.nrdc.org/stories/9-ways-avoid-hormone-disrupting-chemicals

http://www.ewg.org/foodscores/content/bpa_bombshell_industry_database?x=1