Breakthroughs Today

It is wiser to avoid taking in bisphenol A (BPA) through food than wait for a human study that proves it definitely toxic. At the same time, it is also to our advantage as consumers to know which plastics to avoid as food containers simply because it contains BPA, or at least used it in its manufacturing process. EARLY this year we knew of the piece of legislation—Senate Bill 3121—that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago submitted for deliberation that aimed to prohibit the use of plastics containing BPA in manufacturing baby products. But like diseases and drugs, plastics are not created equal. There are plastics that are not manufactured in a way that it becomes likely for them to contain BPA. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) identified these plastics as those “marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.” It also noted that since 1957, BPA has been used to manufacture hard plastic food containers such as baby bottles and reusable cups, not to

A lot of things happen beyond the reach of the human senses, especially the eyes. There is the world of the minute organisms--bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi--whose existence can only be taken as true from the pronouncements of those who have studied this world. And there is also the world of the inanimate chemicals, whether biological or synthetic. Both these worlds can hold as in great awe when we happen to watch these ourselves. These microcosm too can provide us a danger that we may never suspect. And example to that is what bisphenol A (BPA) provides to infants... and even to adults as well. PD James wrote in his 2001 novel, Death in Holy Orders: “Much of the world’s grief was caused by people who claimed that they were only doing their duty.” That is utterly true for those soldiers who had to fight an oppressive war (their superiors ordered them so) or to engineers who formulate small but poisonous compounds to human foods either to save on the cost of materials

Knowledge often supports wisdom. In the harmful impacts of certain plastic types, knowledge alone makes you a lot wiser. WITH the increasing support that local lawmakers provide on the move against plastic as used in bags, another assault on the move against plastic in its use as bottles and containers for food and food products is up. Senator Miriam Santiago filed a few months earlier Senate Bill No. 3121, which when approved into law, will become as the BPA in Baby Products Prohibition Act of 2012. The culprit is the chemical referred to as BPA or Bisphenol A, a solid but colorless organic compound. It is synthetically manufactured precursor chemical used in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The polycarbonate plastics are the ones used in the production of many food and drink bottles and containers, such as water bottles and infant feeding bottles. Epoxy resins practically lacquers used in coating metal products such as food cans, bottle tops, and water supply pipes.