I have recently decided that the issues surrounding bisphenol A are too compelling and too complex to fit in my little blog about reducing plastic use. Here is a succinct but still somewhat exhaustive overview of the problem with BPA.
I got sucked down a rabbit hole last weekend. There are articles on the Internet detailing the way in which chemical companies provide lots of money to labs and publishers of peer reviewed research. By some amazing coincidence, these bodies provide conclusions that say a certain chemical is safe for humans. This isn’t shocking, but I was dismayed to read that the chemical companies manage to sway government agencies with the research that favors them even when the vast majority of independent research comes to the opposite conclusion. This scenario is not unique to BPA and if we extrapolate from what happened with asbestos and tobacco, you have to assume that it will be years or even decades before there is a definitive quantification of the risk posed by BPA.
My last word on BPA is that avoiding all plastic packaging and containers as much is possible will benefit your health and the environment.
