You shouldn't need a PhD to find a toxic-free baby bottle
We asked 30 parents to pick which three bottles in our collection contained BPA. Ten of those thirty guessed correctly after tapping the plastic and holding them to the light. Twenty others guessed wrong, stymied by the lack of labeling and the similarity of colors and shapes
As part of last Wednesday's "Million Baby Crawl" event in Portland, moms and dads at Washington Square Mall tapped, squeezed and squinted at baby bottles. These vigilant parents helped us prove a point: it isn’t easy to tell which bottles are safe to use.
We challenged them: can you tell which of these seven bottles are made with the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA)?
All but one of the parents who stopped by our table had heard of this chemical leaching from some plastics. None of the parents were willing to risk exposing their child to BPA, since studies have emerged making a link between health risks and small doses of the endocrine disruptor.
We asked 30 parents to pick which three bottles in our collection contained BPA. Ten of those thirty guessed correctly after tapping the plastic and holding them to the light. Twenty others guessed wrong, stymied by the lack of labeling and the similarity of colors and shapes. One mom shrugged: “I use glass, anyway.” Another admitted, “I’m going to have to sort through my collection of sippy cups.”
Fortunately, it’s easy to find “BPA-free” plastic bottles in most stores today. Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell what is BPA-free when bottles are out of their packages on the shelves of your day care.
We don’t like the odds – or the guessing game. We’d like to ensure that all bottles, sippy cups and children’s food packaging is free from this endocrine disruptor. See more about what we’re doing on our bpa-free information page.
