After many years of insisting that Bisphenol-A (BPA) is safe, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shifted its stance on the endocrine-disrupting chemical, citing that BPA exposure is of “slight concern.” A growing body of scientific evidence, however, has shown that BPA is very dangerous to human health, making it hard for the governmental agency to ignore much longer. Despite this compelling evidence, the FDA “has missed three self-imposed deadlines to re-evaluate its approval of the chemical, after originally promising in June 2009 to deliver a finding in "weeks not months." Read on to learn more about this risky chemical, where it’s found, and what you can to do limit your exposure to it.

 1. Bisphenol-A [is a] a chemical that mimics the female sex hormone estrogen and is used to make consumer products ranging from plastic baby bottles to the linings of tin cans.

– Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps

 2. You should be drinking a lot of water, but please beware of plastic water bottles. Plastics made from polycarbonate resin can leach Bisphenol-A (BPA), a potent hormone disruptor. BPA may impair the reproductive organs and have adverse effects on tumors, breast tissue development, and prostate development by reducing sperm count. BPA can leach into water bottles through normal wear and tear and exposure to heat and cleaning agents.

– C. W. Randolph, M.D., From Belly Fat to Belly FLAT: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waistline and Subtracting Years from Your Life

 3. Bisphenol-A is a toxin associated with birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems. BPA is commonplace — found in copious brands of fruit, vegetables, soda, and other frequently eaten canned goods. It migrates from the can or plastic into the contents, which are then ingested.

– Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps

 4. Dental sealants can contain Bisphenol-A, a suspected endocrine disruptor, while traditional silver-colored fillings can contain as much as 50 percent mercury.

– Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!)  

 5. There are two solvents commonly used in cosmetics and personal care products: phthalates, and Bisphenol-A. These ingredients are often hidden, remaining undisclosed on product labels.

– Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It

 6. A 2007 review of 700 studies involving BPA, published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology, found that infants and fetuses were the most vulnerable to adverse effects from this toxic substance.

– Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It

7. Toxins are everywhere — from household cleaning products to plastics in our kitchen-ware, phthalates and Bisphenol-A in our plastic water bottles, and even in our tap water and air supply. We live in a sea of toxins, and a large body of growing evidence shows that these toxins are, in part, responsible for the epidemic of disease we see in the twenty-first century. Toxic exposures affect the health of all brains, young and old. We must also deal with all the by-products and toxic metabolic wastes created by our own bodies.

– Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First

 8. BPA has been linked to the development of prostate and breast cancer in adults.

– Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power

 9. Bisphenol-A was invented in the 1930s during the search for synthetic estrogens.

– KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality

 10. The compound BPA is one of the most-produced chemicals in the world, and almost everyone has traces of it — or more — in their bodies. The statement, published online by the journal Reproductive Toxicology, was accompanied by a new study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health finding uterine damage in newborn animals exposed to BPA. The researchers indicated that such damage is a possible predictor of reproductive diseases in women, including fibroids, endometriosis, cystic ovaries and cancers.

– Andreas Moritz, Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You

 11. An estrogen-mimicking chemical, Bisphenol-A, causes early puberty in female rats and reduces fertility in rats. In males it appears to cause enlargement in the male rat prostate glands. We do not know if this chemical might be related to prostate cancer in humans.

– Doris J. Rapp, M.D., Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call

 12. An expert panel found credible evidence that Bisphenol-A and the insecticide methoxyclor can cause reproductive damage at very low levels of exposure that are well below the so called "no effect" levels. In one report infertility had risen from 0.5 percent to 25 percent in one cross-section study of college males. In another report in April 2001, the infertility rate in Chinese university students was reported to be as high as 85 percent. Infertility, sexual dysfunction and impotence was stated to affect 20 to 30 percent of Chinese males in one study.

– Doris J. Rapp, M.D., Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call

 13. At 20 ng/g dose of Bisphenol-A, the daily sperm production went down 20 percent. This work needs to be reproduced, but unless refuted it adds fuel to the need for precautionary measures. Try not to get any fillings, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy. Regular fillings contain mercury (a known hormone disruptor) and composite fillings contain Bisphenol-A (another hormone disruptor). If you have to have a filling, ask for a temporary made out of other materials.

– D. Lindsey Berkson, Hormone Deception

 14. Over the past two decades, BPA has meanwhile become an integral chemical in the packaging of millions of food products and other plastic goods; more than six billion pounds of BPA are used each year in resins lining metal cans, food packaging, hot beverage cups, and in blends with other types of plastic products. Lab research shows that the bond that secures BPA molecules to food and beverage packages changes over time, resulting in the release of free BPA into the food we eat and the beverages we consume, as well as into the environment.

– Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic

 15. PCBs, like plastic additives such as Bisphenol-A and common pesticides, are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have been shown in numerous lab studies to stimulate increased production of autoantibodies — antibodies against self — which are the hallmark of autoimmunity in action. Indeed, as we have seen in the previous chapter, the science demonstrating the way in which estrogen disruptors such as PCBs promote autoimmune disease is emerging with profoundly disturbing conclusions.

– Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic

 16. The plastic industry will tell you that small amounts of BPA are nothing to worry about. A study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, however, suggests that when mice are exposed to low levels of BPA for several days, they develop insulin resistance. What is so alarming about this discovery is that the levels of BPA used in the experiment would be considered safe for humans by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

– Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People’s Pharmacy  

 17. Don’t microwave your food or drinks in plastic containers; avoid using plastic wrap to cover food in the microwave.

– C. W. Randolph, M.D., From Belly Fat to Belly FLAT: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waistline and Subtracting Years from Your Life

 18. The estrogenic properties of Bisphenol-A (BPA) was known as early as 1936, yet children now have their teeth coated with plastic containing BPA. The ADA denies any problem and goes on coating teeth. Food and drink cans are lined with it. Some plastic baby bottles contain it and other plasticizers.

– Michael Friedman, ND, Fundamentals of Naturopathic Endocrinology

 19. In addition to testing positive for high levels of Bisphenol-A, a chemical that mimics the female sex hormone estrogen and is used to make consumer products ranging from plastic baby bottles to the linings of tin cans, the politicians were also tested for polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals 185 used in electrical transformers that were banned decades ago. Despite no longer being in use, PCBs are so persistent that all the politicians tested positive for them.

– Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps

 20. Polycarbonate can release its primary building block, Bisphenol-A, another suspected hormone disruptor, into liquids and foods. In 1998, the Japanese government ordered manufacturers there to recall and destroy polycarbonate tableware meant for use by children because it contained excessive amounts of Bisphenol-A."

– KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality