What is Bisphenol-A (BPA)?

If you are like many people, you try and choose foods that are free as possible of harmful chemicals such as pesticides. If, on the other hand, you eat canned beans, canned soups, soft drinks, you also may be consuming residues of a controversial chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) that can leak out of the can linings into your food. Almost all can liners contain BPA.

It has also been known to migrate from polycarbonate plastic water bottles.Plastic water and baby bottles, food and beverage can linings and dental sealants are the most commonly encountered uses of this chemical. BPA has been found to leach from bottles into babies' milk or formula.

8 Ways to Avoid Harmful Chemicals from cans and plastic bottles

1. If you already own polycarbonate bottles, including the Nalgene bottles popular on college campuses, labeled #7 on the bottom, wash them by hand with mild dish washing soap, not in the dishwasher, to avoid degrading the plastic and increasing leaching of BPA.
2. Even plastic does not last forever. Look for cracks or cloudiness on your reusable clear plastic bottles.
3. Use glass baby bottles or plastic bag inserts, which are made of polyethylene, or switch to polypropylene bottles that are labeled #5 and come in colors or are milky rather than clear.
4. Choose soups, milk and soy milk packaged in cardboard "brick" cartons, by Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc, which are made of safer layers of aluminum and polyethylene (#2) and also recyclable.
5. Choose canned foods from makers who don't use BPA, such as Eden Foods which sells certified organic canned beans and other foods.
6. Eat fresh foods in season and save the canned foods for convenience or emergencies. The exception is some canned fruit such as that found in smaller fruit-cocktail cans, which do not require a liner, according to the Can Manufacturers Institute.
7. Buy or can your own fruits and vegetables in safe glass jars.
8. Some wines have been found to contain up to six times the BPA of canned foods. While most wines probably don't, it's another good reason to drink in moderation.
   

To read this entire article please go the Green Guide Institute.