What is BPA and Is BPA harmful to humans?

Intro
What is BPA?
What are the disadvantages of BPA?
Is it really safe to BPA Free?
How can it be safe?
Concluding remarks

Intro:

When buying plastic milk bottles, water bottles, or lunch boxes, you may notice that some products have a “BPA-free” label. In particular, baby bottles are generally marked with BPA-free signs in conspicuous places. So what exactly is BPA? Is it really safe without BPA? Today NOWEST(a professional water bottle manufacturer) will come to popularize BPA.

What is BPA?

The full name of BPA is Bisphenol A, which is a plastic additive that allows plastic molecules to stick together more firmly.

Do you know? BPA was originally a pharmaceutical ingredient developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in hormone replacement therapy. Unfortunately, the mud could not support the wall and did not achieve the expected effect, so it was abandoned by pharmaceutical companies. Unexpectedly, BPA was discovered by the industry by accident, and its unique chemical properties, so it changed to another field to shine.

After adding BPA, plastic can be as hard as glass, but much lighter. Therefore, if you want to make hard plastic, you can add BPA, or apply it to the inside of metal packaging to prevent the reaction between food and metal. For example, the inner layer of the outer packaging of various cans we often eat is often coated with containing BPA plastic.

What are the disadvantages of BPA?

So What are the disadvantages of BPA? It is easily freed from plastic and enters the human body with food. It looks like the estrogen in our body, so it will pretend to be estrogen and affect the endocrine system. Especially for children or infants, it can cause serious neurological damage, and the result is that people will become stupid. For adults, some studies have shown that BPA can also contribute to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even a predisposition to cancer.

Because the effect of BPA on adults is slow, and it is difficult to find very certain evidence to prove how much BPA affects adults, for the time being, European countries have only banned the use of BPA in baby products. There are currently no mandatory regulations for adult products. So there was the BPA Free logo.

Is it really safe to BPA Free?

Is BPA-free really safe? As mentioned earlier, BPA helps plastic to harden. How can plastic be hard if BPA is not added? If you can find a safe alternative in the short term, you must change it early. So, some manufacturers have secretly found a less secure alternative, BPS! After this kind of thing is added, we can boldly say that our thing is BPA-free! But in fact, the BPS inside is almost as bad as BPA.

From a toxicological point of view, the behaviors of BPS and BPA in disrupting endocrine metabolism and violating cell function are very similar. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston published a study in 2013 suggesting that BPS may contribute to ADHD, diabetes, obesity, asthma, birth defects, and even cancer. In another study conducted by the University of Cincinnati, scientists found that BPS can cause cardiac arrhythmias in rats like BPA, and it is more harmful to female rats. More worryingly, BPS contamination was detected in the urine of nearly 81% of people in the United States in a random sample survey.

How can it be safe?

The bad history of BPA and BPS is a good example of the importance of real-time data monitoring to industry regulatory support. Unfortunately, new materials do not need to be tested for toxicity by federal agencies before they can be allowed on the market. And many health benefits are hard to see without decades.

To stay away from BPA, try to do the following:

Try not to contact food with plastic products, especially baby food, use glass instead. If you use plastic products, it is best to only pack cold, and not store them for a long time.
If the receipt for shopping is unnecessary, throw it away immediately. Because the thermal paper used in the printing process of the receipt also contains a high concentration of BPA.
After the plastic is heated, a large amount of BPA will come out. So never throw plastic in the microwave, especially plastic wrap. Don’t put plastic dishes in the dishwasher either.
Try not to eat canned things, not only BPA but also preservatives, which cause all kinds of unhealthy things to our body!

Conclusion

BPA, like many other chemicals, is a health hazard that the rapid development of industrial society has planted in our daily lives. Modern life has given us a lot of conveniences, and we are more proactive in learning and understanding what kind of risks the “modern life” we rely on every day brings to us and our next generation. Risks are not daunting. As long as we clearly understand, we can create a safe and healthy living environment for the direct and family members. Furthermore, talking about toxicity without the dose is a hooligan. Occasionally using plastic products to contain food, there is no need to worry too much.