Misuse

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the “highest volume chemicals in commercial production” according to a Science News report published on Sept 27, 2007 entitled “Clearly Concerning” (paid subscription required unfortunately). BPA is used extensively in the formation of polycarbonate plastics, which are hard and clear, and used to form “baby bottles, flatware, watercooler bottles and [food processor bowls].” It also is found in “epoxy resins used to line food and beverage cans and even to seal cavity prone teeth.” In short BPA is found everywhere.

Including you. BPA doesn’t remain in these plastics - it “inevitably leaches into foods and people’s mouths, such that traces of the chemical now show up in everyone’s body.”

While the science research is not unambiguous on the effect of BPA on humans, BPA “can harm lab animals at concentrations below those already occurring in most people” according to a panel report produced by 38 scientists which reviewed more than 700 BPA studies (Reproductive Toxicology August-September, 2007 - free abstract-only). The panel reported confidence that there were human health concerns and that those health effects were “likely.”

Of particular note is that BPA leaches from plastics at a rate increasing with age, so that old, cracked and discolored plastics are potentially even more harmful. Randy Jirtle, a BPA researcher at Duke University (Durham NC) says that “if I was a woman who was pregnant - or thinking about becoming pregnant - I would try hard to avoid exposure to BPA.”

More conclusive studies are underway, but since there are good alternatives to polycarbonate/BPA-infused plastics (recyclable metal and glass among them), there doesn’t seem to be any good reason to keep using the stuff, if you can avoid it. Consider yourself notified.

As per usual Wikipedia has an article with additional information.