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Toss plastic bottles for health's sake

Minimize your use of plastic bottles, food containers to protect your health

Date published: 9/21/2008

SOME PLASTIC food containers and metal food cans have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Last Wednesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 90 percent of Americans have the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, in their bodies. BPA is found in many plastic bottles, as well as in the linings of metal food cans and soda cans.

People with the highest levels of BPA had 40 percent higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and liver abnormalities. They were also more likely to be poor, overweight and people of color.

The research, based on a survey of nearly 1,500 Americans, doesn't prove BPA causes heart disease and diabetes, just that it seems to come along with them.

More studies are needed to show whether BPA is the culprit or a coincidence. A rooster crowing at dawn doesn't cause the sun to rise. Likewise, the link between between BPA and health problems might be a coincidence--maybe it's the soda inside the cans that's causing obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

However, both heart diseases and diabetes run in my family, and I'm not taking chances.

Likewise, in the Journal, a physician and scientist asked the government to to reduce people's exposure to BPA now. Canada has already declared BPA an environmental contaminant.

The Journal study isn't the first on BPA. This spring, I wrote about studies that linked BPA to breast and prostate cancer. There's conflicting evidence, however, because health problems can be caused by diet, exercise, genetics and many other things besides plastic. Also, it's hard to find anyone who hasn't been exposed to BPA to compare with the rest of us.

BPA is found everywhere: the chemical is used to make polycarbonate water bottles and baby bottles more flexible, in the lining of food cans and soda cans, and in dental sealants. Tests have even found BPA in household dust.

MAKING SOME CHANGES

I'm not willing to get crazy and eliminate all plastics from my life. But I have made easy changes to reduce BPA.

First, I switched our family's water bottles to a BPA-free version, which I found at a local outdoor store.

Many metal cans have BPA plastic liners, ironically to keep a metallic flavor from leaching into the food. Instead, flavorless BPA leaches into the food.

Jennifer Motl is a registered dietitian. Formerly of Fredericksburg, she now lives in Wisconsin.

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Date published: 9/21/2008

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