ABOUT
Smart discussion of the latest science and news on toxins in your food, water, and air, and what government agencies should be doing to protect public health. Written by EWG staff.
DONATE TO EWG TODAY
We need you to help protect your health and environment! Please donate $5 to EWG today.
GET EWG'S TIPS & ACTION ALERTS
Sign Up here to receive email updates and tips from EWG and stay informed on the issues that matter most to you.
Get EWG widgets & blog badges.
ENVIROBLOG TO YOU
ENVIROBLOG VIA EMAIL
Cell Phone Radiation Blog Series - All In One Place
Rubber Ducky: You're so not the one
Epigenetics hits the mainstream
Cosmetics Safety Series - Part 2: Mind the (data) gap
SEARCH ENVIROBLOG
FEATURED
Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?
Cell phone radiation series - Part 2: 8 Ways to reduce your exposure
Infant formula: How to choose it & use it
EWG's Tips for Parents: The Series
EWG's Tips to avoid BPA exposure
Let's talk some serious shop about TSCA reform
EWG on TV
Cutting the Pork from U.S. Farm Bill
Sunscreen safety & DC drinking water
Perchlorate in people, kids' personal care products & plastics, and sunscreen
BPA in baby formula & safe cosmetics
What can I do about fluoride in my water?
What is new carpet treated with? What can I do?
Are stainless steel water bottles safe?
Is mineral-based makeup safer?
PEOPLE TALKING TOXICS
TALK TO US
Did we miss something? Email Enviroblog.
« There's BPA in infant formula. | Main | Ask EWG: What is "fragrance"? »
BPA in formula: This is not a call to panic.
Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
—Elizabeth Stone
Being a parent, as I understand it, involves a lot of trust. You have to trust your pediatrician, eventually you'll have to trust a babysitter, and of course you have to trust all the well-meaning relatives who just want to hold her for a minute. Then there are all the companies you have to trust to protect your child: the company that made the car seat, the one that made the crib, the toys, the pacifiers. But of all those companies parents end up trusting, formula companies may be the most inherently risky. We all know breast milk is best, but seventy percent of babies in the US will be given some formula by the time they're three months old. For most babies, formula will be the very first manufactured food to pass their lips, and parents are left with little choice but to trust that the formula manufacturers are doing what's right for children.
Which is why it's such an outrage that every formula manufacturer in the U.S. puts infant formula into cans lined with the toxic plastics chemical bisphenol A. EWG spoke with representatives from each of the companies three times to ascertain the answer, and it's true: liquid formulas packaged in cans, and powdered formulas packaged in canisters with metal tops and bottoms, are exposed to a toxic chemical that is known to leach into food. Based on BPA levels found in ready-to-eat liquid formula,
1 of every 16 infants fed the formula would be exposed to the chemical at doses exceeding those that caused harm in laboratory studies.
Are you angry yet? Because this is not a call to panic. This is a call to action.
The use of BPA to line infant formula cans is, as Izzy put it in an email, unconscionable. Here's what you can do:
- Switch to powdered. If you're currently bottle feeding a baby and using liquid formula, switch to powdered right away. Powdered formula has lower BPA exposure because only thirty percent of the container (the top and bottom) is lined with it.
- Pay it forward. If anyone you know is formula feeding a baby, pass this information along (our one-page parent's guide to bottle feeding makes a good fact-sheet).
- Make noise. Formula companies actually do care what you think -- after all, parents, you're their best customers. We've compiled email addresses for each of the companies, and we've even written a sample email to give you a jumping-off point.
- Make MORE noise. Join the community at Moms Speak Up and League of Maternal Justice (yup, even if you're a dad), because there's power in numbers.
- Be vigilant. The internet is full of resources to help play it safe when it comes to chemical exposure. Websites Safe Mama and SAFbaby will keep you updated on the latest, and Z Recommends does research to bring you useful reports like this one on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups.
Someday soon there will be even more you can do -- and believe me, I'll let you know when that day comes. In the meantime, let manufacturers know: We may have trusted them blindly in the past, but now they're going to have to work for it.
This should be more of a call to breastfeeding!!
I know it probably isn't much, but we take the powdered out of the can and put it in a glass or ceramic container at home. At least it reduces some of the leaching.
Cheers.
Suzanne: AMEN to this being a call to breastfeeding!
I also just wish that EVERYTHING I expose my child to didn't require a second glance.
I'm sure we've all said, "Well, my parents used this on me or I played with that toy, and I turned out fine..." What is the difference now and why do companies "poison" consumers?
i hate that bpa is in things that children use. i try and keep as much of it away from my children as i can. this does not mean that i am going to stop giving those things to them. it would be nice to breastfeed but their mothers (like me) who cannot breastfeed and have to give their children bottles filled with formula. it is sad that this is going on.
i really cant believe what i've just read why are they still using it? it's really sad that we have to watch what we feed our children i feel like i live in china and they are tainting our baby food