Experts warn against heating baby bottles due to harmful chemical

Reported by: Jill Atwood
Last Update: 2/07 7:23 pm

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Health experts issued a warning for parents with babies. A study suggests the toxic chemical bisphenol-a, used to make baby bottles can leach into the liquid inside when heated. And that could be a serious medical problems for the children. Almost every bottle on the market: Advent, Evenflo, Playtex,Gerber. They all use this chemical also known as BPA to make their bottles. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice sponsored this study, and is now calling for an immediate moratorium on the chemical's use. Drinking from a bottle is many times necessary for baby's development and growth and for non-breastfeeding mothers, but could your child be ingesting a lot more than just milk or formula?

“I do know that the concentrations that they are finding in bottles are many many fold times higher than what is considered safe,” says Christina Mcnaughton of the Utah Department of Health. Many experts say yes. Scientists suggest there is mounting evidence that even low doses of bisphenol-a can result in serious health risks later on, such as:

-Prostate and breast cancer
-Early on set of puberty
-Obesity
-Hyperactivity
-Low sperm count
-Miscarriage and diabetes

“It can actually mimic an estrogen chain in the body and so therefore you can have some fertility issues for women and it's also very detrimental for developmental and neurological problems in developing infants in the womb,” says Mcnaughton, who is a toxicologist with the Utah department of Health. She says while the studies do have merit we have to remember BPA is in virtually everything we use and consume. “The CDC has reported that 95 percent of Americans have some detectable levels of BPA in their systems,” says McNaughton. This statement was also released by the American chemistry council:

"Bisphenol a is not a risk to human health at extremely low levels to which consumers might be exposed." But what kind of affect do higher levels, some say unacceptable levels, have on our developing children?

“I think a lot more research needs to be done in order for us to be definitive on what we're actually trying to determine and the health affects that are related to that,” says McNaughton. Right now there is a congressional bisphenol probe being conducted by the committee on Energy and Commerce in Washington D.C. There are also nine states studying this chemical and, in fact, trying to ban BPA in children's products and devise a warning label system for adults.

When ABC 4 asked our state toxicologist if she would stop warming her baby's bottle, She said "Absolutely, just as a precaution".

For more information on BPA, go to:
www.newbornfree.com
www.greatgreenbaby.com
www.chej.org