BABY BOTTLES! PLASTIC OR GLASS?

Up until a time when Grandma Bugpuddles was raising her children many years ago, there was no question about what to use.    Mothers nursed their babies; or if they had no milk of their own because of some illness or fever, then they purchased from a nursing woman who had more than enough of her own milk and was willing to share with others.  Some women actually earned a meager living wage as a “wet nurse.”  In still later times the purchased mother’s milk was sold in glass bottles.

After that time, many in the medical profession decided it was simply not necessary for new mothers to nurse their babies; and further decided that babies could get more nutrition from the commercial formulas of the day.  This was not a good idea.  Milk allergies came into full bloom during this practice.  I imagine there are lots of “almost sixties” in this country who have milk allergies today; that is, if they didn’t “outgrow” them after they left their childhood years.

Now, I’ll just bet a nickel you didn’t know that wet nurses are back in style in this day and time.    Some ladies in various parts of the world have thriving businesses.  And many of them advertise their wet nursing business on the internet.

As a natural progression in a country devoted to entrepreneurship — what could be more profitable to the companies producing them, (and convenient for the young mother’s purchasing them) than plastic bottles.  Just use them up, throw them in the landfill, and go on to the next batch.  That these plastic bottles out-gassed many harmful substances did not attract anyone’s attention until the last couple of years, and there is much still be argued about.

Baby bottles purchased in the United States and Canada were tested in the recent past and the tests reported.  Some of the companies that produced the baby bottles being tested included Gerber, Playtex, Dr. Brown, Evenflo, and Avent.  The bottles were heated to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C) and every one of them leached bisphenol A into the contents of the bottles in the amounts of approximately 5 to 7 parts per billion.  The report also suggested that because of the chemical makeup of bisphenol A, it may leach more in fatty or acidic liquids, such as milk or apple juice, than in water.

Regardless of these tests, the U.S. and E.U. health and environment authorities still stand behind polycarbonate plastic, putting the safe level of daily bisphenol A exposure at more than 25 times the levels found in baby bottles.

Because of the estrogen-mimicking endocrine disrupter chemical, Bisphenol-A, being used in the production of epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics the San Francisco city supervisors voted unanimously in favor of the Child Safety Product Ordinance and

Supervisor, Fiona Ma, who wrote the ordinance, said: “We have a precautionary principle here in San Francisco. It says if there’s a possibility of harm or damage, then we should err on the side of caution. *** The studies have shown that these toxic chemicals can cause permanent harm to our young people.”

Section 1 of the San Francisco Health Code was amended in 2006.  Part of the code amendment reads as follows:

(a)    Bisphenol-A, an estrogen-mimicking endocrine disrupter chemical is used in the production of epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics and is the main ingredient in hard polycarbonate plastics.  The plastics are used in many food and drink packaging applications, and the resins are commonly used as lacquers to coat metal products such as food cans, bottle tops and water supply pipes.

(b) Bisphenol-A has been shown to have hormone-disrupting effects and is used in many products designed for children, including, but not limited to, toys, pacifiers, baby bottles and teethers.

(c) No person or entity shall manufacture, sell, or distribute in commerce within the City and County of San Francisco any toy or child care article intended for use by a child under three years of age if that product has been made with or contains bisphenol-A.

I will not set forth the code amendment in full because if you live in San Francisco and are buying your baby bottles, toys, pacifiers, and teethers locally, then you already have full knowledge of your city code.   However, if you are purchasing your baby bottles, teething products and pacifiers online from a company that still uses the Bisphenol-A plastics in their manufacturing you may want to find out as much as you possibly can about this chemical.

The United States National Academy of Sciences (NRC, 1983) safety assessment of BPA (Bisphenol-A) concludes that the potential human exposure to BPA from polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resin food contact applications is minimal and poses no known risk to human health.

Using a similar methodology, the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food (SCF), in an independent analysis, has confirmed the safety of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resin food contact applications. The SCF estimated total dietary intake of BPA from all food contact sources to be in the range of 0.00048 to 0.0016 mg/kg body weight/day, which is below the Tolerable Daily Intake set by the SCF of 0.01 mg/kg body weight/day.

Before you buy any more bottles, or teethers, or pacifiers, you must study everything you can find about this chemical, Bisphenol-A, and then make your decision.

Love to all from

Grandma Bugpuddles

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