Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ll have heard all about Bisphenol A, or BPA, the potentially harmful chemical found in many baby bottles and sippy cups. And probably, you’ve been wondering why the government allows baby bottles to contain BPA.

Several manufacturers, like Playtex and Nalgen, are phasing out BPA-containing products, due to customer demand. Playtex is offering a free BPA-free bottle liner on it’s website to promote it’s BPA-free products. And stores like Wal-Mart are planning to stop selling BPA-containing products by early 2009.

The Canadian governement is going one step further, and is in the process of legislation that will outright ban the sale of bottles containing BPA.

BPA is a chemical that mimics the effect of hormones in the body. It’s been proven to cause damage to rat and mouse eggs and chromosomes, and predispose them to certain cancers. No studies have ever conclusively shown BPA to cause damage in humans, but since it is clearly harmful to lab rats, who wants to take chances with our babies?

Here in the US, the federal National Toxicology Program is studying the chemical, and their preliminary reports agree that BPA may be linked to serious problems in humans. Let’s hope that the US government follows Canada’s lead, and BPA is banned here too.

Tags: baby bottles, bisphenol A, BPA, sippy cups