Wellness Wednesday

This week for Wellness Wednesday I am going to go outside of my expertise and write to you about Environmental Wellness.


Have you heard about BPA? I hadn't until last year. Bisphenol A is a compound found in many of our plastics- specifically the see through, shatterproof plastic that resembles glass. BPA has been around for well over 50 years but in 2008 became headline news when several government agencies issued safety concerns regarding this material. Specifically, that BPA has been linked to behavioral changes in children and has shown to be a trigger for early onset of puberty in females. Other scary findings show that BPA has been linked to ovarian disease and can alter the activity of genes in normal breast cells in ways that mimic what is found in breast cancer.

The problem with plastics made with BPA is that overtime these plastics break down and the BPA can leach into our foods and drinks. This process is accelerated with heat. So everytime we send our BPA plastics through the dishwasher or put them in the microwave we run the risk of BPA contamination.

Because children are especially in danger of BPA toxicity much of the BPA-Free movement has focused on baby bottles and sippy cups. In fact, this is huge- Walmart announced in late 2008 that it would be removing all BPA baby bottles from it's shelves. I would imagine this change has already taken place, but you can double check by looking for the BPA-free label on all your baby bottle and sippy cup packaging.

It literally makes me want to throw up to think about the 3 years my now 4 year old drank microwaved warm milk through his nonBPA-Free bottles and sippy cups. (Yes, he was a little spoiled and insisted on warm (almost "coffee hot") milk until he was 3- that is a whole other issue) And even my 16 month old was exposed most of his life- But NO MORE!

I am proud to announce that I used some of the proceeds from my last weekend's garage sale to purchase all new BPA free sippy cups!! Out with the old, In with the new!! I went to Target to get our new sippy cups and I noticed that most brands did carry BPA-free models. I was especially pumped to find that Nuby even had some BPA-Free choices- that's our favorite.

Well, I hope this post did not scare you but simply made you more aware. Really, I just know enough about BPA to be dangerous so read up on the subject to form your own opinion about it and to learn other things you can do to remove BPA from your home.