Actually, that is the current media health hype of the week. It comes right after the headlines stating your cell phone can cause brain cancer, and ice cream can cure infertility (actual news topics, by the way). Seriously, I wish the media didn't jump to publish such sensational headlines, because even if it had truth behind it, such remarks tend to cause unnecessary panic among the population. Apparently, some leading baby bottle manufacturers use Bisphenol A in their polycarbonate plastic, which according to an environmental group, leaches out in concentrations found to be dangerous in laboratory animals. Of course, I had to see if this was validated by any good scientific studies, so I did a brief PubMed search and concluded that there is probably no harm based on the current published information. I guess the NIH is forming a review panel on March 7 to review current findings, so it will be interesting to hear if there are any changes. The brands involved include Avent, Dr. Brown's, Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex (all the major brands). We've used Dr. Brown bottles for both our kids (I'm planning on writing a review at some point), and I would be rather disturbed to hear that they leaked harmful chemical concentrations that can cause neurologic damage. I highly doubt that this is the case though. I mean, it seems unlikely that they would be more harmful than say, drinking from a plastic cup or eating with a plastic spoon. In any case, I'll post more when I find out more about it.

Tags: health