Tuesday, July 01, 2008

BIS


BPA the bis.


What is bis to most north Indians and may I add Indians from the east and west and central is poison. I don’t know the good word for poison in the south. You might have seen in many Indian movies how pretty heroines keep very well labeled little bottles of POISON that rolls out after the attempted suicide.
All that might be in for a change, not the heroines just the bottle.
One could be carrying a simple plastic bottle and evoke similar emotion still.

I am referring to Bisphenol A, (BPA for short)
Just the US produces about 3 billion pounds of the chemical; it is used principally in production of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. You and I come across this chemical in almost all plastic bottles including feeding bottles of babies, compact discs dental fillings, inner coat of metal containers that are used in food packaging etc .

Hundred percent of the (eleven in all) industry funded studies have found BPA to be harmless. While just ninety percent of government funded studies (one hundred four in all) found that BPA was harmful and can cause..
1. Childhood behavioral problem such as hyperactivity.
2. It can raise the chances of precipitating type 2, diabetes.
3. Raise the risk of certain cancers.
4. Hamper fertility and can lead to miscarriages in women.
5. BPA, mimics estrogen so it can cause a host of problems that are yet to be fully understood, and all this with a low dose of the stuff that you and me find in the inner lining of almost all packed food. BPA is quite generously leached into the food. This is clear from a US, study where 95% of those tested had BPA in their urine sample.

What can you do to beat the perfect delivery system of this slow poison?

a. Spread the word, please.
b. Don’t wash plastic bottles with harsh detergents it speeds up the leaching.
c. At least dispose the bottle before cracks appear or it becomes cloudy.
d. Use glass baby bottles for heavens shake.
e. Choose tetra pack of food and drink.
f. Watch for cracks in plastics used in microwave ovens.

And as if this was not enough, some wines are found to have up to six times more of BPA
Booze less.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very informative, but I wonder what is the ideal material to use in microwave if not plastics?