BPA: It's everywhere!

A recent article in Women’s Health magazine raised awareness to the fact that BPA is present in canned foods, which as many know can be detrimental to one’s health if consumed in excess. BPA is a plastic hardening chemical that has negative effects on the brain, impairing normal function, leading to memory loss, learning difficulties and depression. A study conducted at Yale School of Medicine used primates in a study of BPA exposure, giving them equal amounts designated safe for humans by the EPA. These primates after long term exposure showed nerve cell connection loss in the brain that influences memory consolidation and learning.
An interest fact about BPA that I was unaware of was that it is a synthetic sex hormone, mimicking estrogen in the body. This excess of estrogen in the body is a hormone disrupting chemical meaning it interferes with the normality of the functioning hormone by exaggerating hormonal responses. BPA gets into the human body from its leaching into food and beverages from cans and plastics lined with the chemical. Over the past few years, there has been raised awareness not to heat plastics by microwave, boiling or washing. What is scary is that BPA in food production is not anything new. BPA has been manufactured in plastics for the past 60 years. In a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2005, 95% of urine samples from people in the United States have measurable BPA levels. The only hope we have for change it to stop its production in our food packaging and hope that drastic health complications are not waiting for us all in the future.
Carlson, Caitlin. Is BPA in Your Soup? Women’s Healthy Magazine, 22 November 2011.
Frederick S. vom Saal and Claude Hughes. An Extensive New Literature Concerning Low-Dose Effects of Bisphenol A Shows the Need for a New Risk Assessment. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 August; 113(8): 926–933, Published online 2005 April 13.