On Earth Day, praise BPA

Yet the charges that BPA is a health hazard continue. One anti-BPA advocate told the press: “the science is clear and the findings are not just scary, they are horrific. When you feed a baby out of a hard, plastic bottle, it is like feeding a baby a birth control pill.” The Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has been working since 2007 to achieve a ban on BPA, posted an article on HuffingtonPost with the headline “BPA Wrecks Sex, Fouls Food—and Probably Worse.”

Time magazine in a recent piece called “The Perils of Plastic” hinted that, even at low doses, BPA and plasticizers like phthalates (used to make plastic flexible) may be responsible for “a host of modern ills…obesity, diabetes, autism, and attention deficit disorder.” And now EPA is getting into the act, asserting that trace levels of BPA may pose a hazard on surfaces and in drinking and ground water.

Consumers—particularly parents of young children—are obviously concerned, and their concern is being conveyed to various political representatives who are suggesting legislation that would ban or limit exposure to BPA—particularly in products used by babies and young children.

How could there be such a discrepancy between the scientific facts (BPA is safe) and popular belief (that it is posing myriad threats to our health)?

First, the answer is partly psychological. Fear of BPA is irrational. It has no basis in fact. But any psychiatrist will tell you that human beings have always postulated that there are hostile, invisible agents in the environment. BPA is the perfect candidate for fomenting such irrational fear. It has an unpronounceable name; you can’t see it; you do not understand any benefits it might offer.

Second, the voices of the anti-BPA “green” movement dominate public dialogue and media coverage. Scientists—who know well that BPA has a fifty-year safety record but prefer to stay out of the fray—remain silent. Until scientists from academia and industry stand up and explain the utility of BPA and the difficulty of replacing it—and use the four-letter word “safe,” the activists will have their way.

Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan is president of the American Council on Science and Health.