The furor over Bisphenol A (BPA) has been building for some time now. The good news is that, finally, something is being done about it. The bad news is that “something” isn’t happening quite as quickly as we parents might like.

The problem
BPA is a chemical found in baby bottles, sippy cups, the lining of infant formula cans, and many other products.

As Amy Spangler pointed out in a piece last March, a recent study concluded that when polycarbonate baby bottles are washed repeatedly, the toxic chemical known as “BPA” can leach into liquids poured into them—and subsequently be consumed by infants. A later study reported by the CDC in August 2007 (and covered by Adam Spangler for baby gooroo) found BPA in the urine of a whopping 95% of tested individuals. Later that same month, a report by the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (of the National Institutes of Health) stated that BPA could be posing some risk to the brain development of babies and children. (See Adam Spangler’s account of the report here.)

Yikes! Parents, did you hear that? BPA could pose a risk to babies’ and children’s brain development. That sounds truly sinister.

Recent developments
The news about BPA gets worse. The National Toxicology Program concluded in a recent draft report that there is “some concern” for the effects of BPA in fetuses, infants and children on neural and behavioral factors as well as factors related to the prostate gland, mammary gland, and early puberty for females.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not altered its long-standing statement that BPA is safe, although that statement was reportedly based on industry-sponsored studies. However, it has now agreed to review BPA safety.

Health Canada has designated the chemical as being a “dangerous substance,” and the government has indicated its intention to ban BPA’s use in baby bottles.

In the U.S., Senators Charles Schumer and Diane Feinstein have even introduced a bill to ban bisphenol A in all children’s products. The ban would take effect a mere 180 days after its passage into law. You can read the Washington Post’s coverage of the proposed ban here.

What can parents do?
While we wait for Congress to—maybe—eliminate BPA from children’s products, what can we do? 

It is true that BPA is prevalent in a wide variety of plastics, and we can’t prevent our children from being exposed to it somewhere. But it seems clear that when it comes to the products that children will use day in and out for milk, formula and more, we should do all we can to minimize (or, dare I hope, eliminate) their exposure to this chemical.

There are BPA-free bottles and sippy cups available on the market. In addition to glass bottles such as those made by Born Free and Evenflo, there are non-polycarbonate (and thus BPA-free) bottles available. Look for polypropylene or polyethylene. Also, keep an eye out for the “BPA-free” symbol, since most manufacturers recognize consumers’ concerns about this chemical and have begun marking their packages accordingly.

But—I cannot stress this enough—do shop carefully. “Z Recommends” recently outed Amazon.com’s “BPA-Free Baby” Shop as being not quite BPA-free. In fact, maybe we could say nowhere near BPA-free. At the time Z visited the site, four of the fourteen models of bottles and sippy cups being sold as BPA-free actually contained the chemical.

Further, while leading retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys R Us have vowed to stop selling BPA-containing baby bottles, they haven’t done so yet. BPA-containing products will be “phased out,” meaning that for some undetermined amount of time unsuspecting or unconcerned consumers will still be able to purchase such products at the stores. The retailers are to be commended for taking this issue seriously, but I do worry about the health of the children who will be fed from the bottles purchased during this interim period.

That said, “Z Recommends” has a great directory of baby bottles and sippy cups and their BPA status. It is a great place for concerned parents and parents-to-be to begin to inform themselves about this important health topic.

Finally, keep informed. Bisphenol A is an incredibly hot topic right now. MomsRising.org has prepared an online petition that will be sent to the manufacturers of the top five baby bottles. Also, if you go to google’s news site and search the term, you just might be amazed at the extent of the attention this common—and, many say, dangerous—plasticizer is receiving.