Harmful Effects of Heating Plastic

There is ongoing debate about how harmful the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) is and how heating plastic increases the release of BPA into food and liquid. While the chemical leaches from plastic in small amounts during normal usage, the amount that is released increases significantly when the plastic is heated. Boiling plastic containing BPA in water releases up to 55 times more BPA than is released under normal temperatures. BPA is believed to harm the endocrine system.

About BPA

• Plastic made with BPA is big business; according to Scientific American, more than 2.3 billion pounds of BPA are manufactured annually. BPA is used to line cans to prevent corrosion. It is also used to make plastic cups and baby bottles. The substance is so prevalent in cups and cans that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that 93% of 2157 people studied had BPA in their urine. Given this information, it is no surprise that researchers are focusing on the possible negative health consequences of this pervasive substance.

The Politics of BPA

• There are at least two sides to the BPA story. Even setting aside obvious capitalist agendas, medical research findings appear inconclusive about how harmful BPA is to health. The one fact that most parties seem to agree on is that heating plastic in boiling water or in a dishwasher causes BPA leakage to increase dramatically, to up to 55 times more than in other usage. What that fact means to the general public is not yet clear.

  The chemical industry argues that, because the FDA has approved the use of this plastic, there is no reason not to continue producing it as a lightweight, shatterproof and cheap plastic product. Industry leaders also claim that good alternatives are hard to find. Fred vom Saal, a reproductive biologist at the University of Missouri at Columbia, disagrees with industry leaders about attractive alternatives, citing polyethylene and polypropylene as excellent substitutes in many cases.

Public Health Concerns and Conflicting Data

• The Study in Toxicology Letters provides evidence that heat causes increased BPA leakage, fueling health risk concerns: "a paper published in Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives stated that 94 out of 115 studies on BPA conclude that BPA causes harmful effects." In sharp contradiction to government studies, 90% of studies funded by the industry conclude that BPA does not pose a health risk to the public.

  Based on animal experiments, BPA reacts with the body much like the female hormone estradiol. Health concerns blamed on BPA range from birth defects and other reproductive issues to a causal relationship with chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer and attention deficit disorder (ADD).

Consumer Safeguards and Considerations

• Concerned consumers can screen out the use of BPA plastic by learning to identify it and choosing alternatives. BPA is found in polycarbonate plastic bearing the number seven as its recycling code. At times, identifying the good plastics from the bad is difficult. In these cases, using glass as an alternative resource makes perfect sense. Also, purchasing soups and vegetables packaged in cardboard instead of cans will help prevent exposure to BPA.