Last year it was phthalates. We read about them, we wrote about them, we worried about them. Grass root efforts paid off; companies such as OPI (long considered the manufacturer of the most toxic soup of all nail polish formulations) announced that their nail polish formulas would go phtalate free.
In earlier years it was mercury. Fish, long called brain food, became a scary meal. But again grass roots efforts bore fruit, FDA guidelines were changed to warn pregnant women and young children from eating too much mercury containing fish.
Welcome to 2010. On January 16th, the New York Times announced the Food and Drug Administration's position shift on Bisphenol A (BPA). The FDA changed their long held position and said that they now had "some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children" and would be studying the issue.
The American Fertility Association has been warning the general public, but in particular women who are or will be trying to conceive, about the potential dangers of BPA since January of 2009, exactly one year ago with the publication of our Infertility Prevention Handbook. Since then we have written about BPA, phtalates, mercury and other estrogen disrupting toxins with regularity on this blog page and newsletter, with the input and partnership of the Environmental Working Group, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and other watch dog organizations.
Will grass root efforts pay off this time? And how do you measure that?
The FDA has recommended that all people limit their exposure to BPA, by throwing away scratched or worn out bottles and cups, and making sure that the microwave code of 7 doesn't appear on plastics used to heat up beverages or foods. (The AFA wishes that the FDA had included the code of 3, products of which also leak phtalates and BPA).
The FDA has also recommended that, in order to avoid canned infant formula, all new moms breast feed their babies for one year. Good news, right?
What the FDA failed to mention, is that BPA leaks into breast milk and can contaminate newborns in this way.
Earlier this week, The AFA ran a blog report stating that BPA also leaks into the umbilical cord, and may affect unborn babies via that route as well.
So. You can think you are doing everything right, but by the time your baby is one year old, he or she may already be harboring a fairly substantial toxic load. Can you ever do enough to change that? And how do we educate people about those changes. Can we ever really do enough?
What I'm wondering is this. Will grass root efforts really take hold this time?
Toxins should be avoided whenever possible. But how do you do that? You substitute fish for meat because meat is "bad" for you and then you find out fish may be worse. You substitute breast milk for infant formula only to find out that may not be a panacea either. I personally breast fed my twins for a solid year, and have worn that accomplishment like a badge ever since. But maybe I didn't do them as right as I thought I did.
In order for a true cultural shift to take place, industry, and media, need to be on the side of safety, not of selling. Buy more consumerism, and the profit motive, are very much at the heart of this issue and is the reason why research studies are slow to happen, get contested by biased industry, and are often not publicized extensively. In addition, affordable, safe alternatives for people to utilize that can help them make healthier choices, rarely exist. The onus is on the consumer, not on industry. And based on the fact that it took a new administration to guide, or perhaps even force the hand of the FDA to shift their position on BPA, we can't necessarily assume that government agencies are automatically on our side.
Buyer beware. Damn straight.
Comments