BPA baby bottle challenge
30 parents at Washington Square Mall tried to guess which of 7 bottles were made with bisphenol A. Guess how many guessed correctly?
Pictured left to right: Jackson, Mattias and Breanna.
In November 2009, at Washington Square Mall in Tigard, OR, Oregon Environmental Council asked 30 parents to guess which of seven baby bottles were made with the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA).
Nine of them guessed correctly, sorting out the three shiny, clear bottles made with polycarbonate plastic. All three were labeled with the recycling number 7, which is one hint that a bottle might be BPA-leaching polycarbonate.
One parent identified a bottle correctly, but then was thrown off track because many of the bottles are not labeled with recycling numbers.
And another 20 parents -- many of whom had heard of the risks of bottles leaching BPA -- were not able to sort out which ones to avoid.
The safest bet is to choose glass or steel bottles over plastic, and many parents we spoke to had made that choice. But if a parent is faced with a choice between plastics, it's good to know which is safest: see our wallet guide to picking safer plastics.
OEC believes that parents shouldn't have to face a confusing choice; all baby food containers should be free from the risk of exposing children to even low doses of an endocrine disrupting chemical.
