April 16th, 2008
Bisphenol A becomes point of Canada-U.S. conflict
Blame Canada for what may become another big health controversy, over bisphenol A. (Picture from the Emerald City Gazette, a soccer magazine.)
Canada is ready to call bisphenol A, which is found in many plastics including water bottles, a toxic chemical. This is based on animal studies showing it has an impact on hormones.
The impact has been well-known for decades. In fact Wikipedia notes Bisphenol A was studied in the 1930s as an estrogen agonist, meaning it increases the impact on the body of the basic female hormone.
A new study on this “chemical found everywhere” is a bit more sanguine, which has had no impact on those who write scary headlines.
That’s because the National Toxicology Program report is more negative than a report last year which pooh-poohed concerns, only it turned out a company hired to do the analysis was also working for the chemical industry. (Ruh-roh.)
Despite the scary headlines the NTP report advises no action be taken against bisphenol A.
Still, the Canadian action is bound to spur public health advocates in the U.S. to demand something be done about bisphenol A, which is so common it’s found in the urine of 93% of us.
Or we could just blame Canada.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 04/17/08
