Would you buy a can of beans with a warning on it that it may contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause reproductive harm?

What about a baby bottle?

If you live in California, you are probably familiar with Proposition 65′s standard warning. Even if you don’t realize it.

You’ve probably seen a warning at the gas station. Or perhaps on some adhesives or similar consmer products. Or for alcoholic beverages.

A Proposition 65 warning sign is placed on consumer products or posted in areas to give warnings to consumers that using the product or being in the area can expose them to a chemical or chemicals that cause cancer and/or birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Proposition 65 requires a warning – it doesn’t prohibit the sale of the items. Just a warning.

But would you buy canned goods with such a warning?

Why do I ask? Because the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) published notice that it will consider adding bisphenol A (BPA) to the list of chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. BPA is being proposed to be added as a development toxicant. The meeting to consider adoption is set for July 15, 2009. I don’t know whether it will be adopted or not, but I’m just wondering what will happen if it is.

You might not be very familiar with BPA, buy you probably have it in your body. Biomonitoring found that 93% of Americans have BPA in their systems.

BPA is a basic monomer of polycarbonate plastic, so it is found in polycarbonate plastic containers. Polycarbonate is used for baby bottles, many of the 5 gallon water bottles, and other similar hard plastic containers. It is also used for the lining of most canned foods and beverages.

Proposition 65 requires a warning unless the business can establish that there is no exposure from use of the product above the significant risk level (for carcinogens) or the no observable effects level (for chemicals that cause reproductive harm). However, Proposition 65 allows a business to place a warning on a product if the company based on its knowledge, or assumption, that a Proposition 65 listed chemical is present without attempting to evaluate the levels of exposure. Companies do this because it is less expensive than to undertake a risk assessment. So companies slap on labels on products based upon the presumption of listed chemicals being present in products, such as lead and phthalates in polyvinyl chloride plastic.

Putting a label on may not reduce product sales for product such as auto or hardware products, but I imagine it will give consumers pause on a canned food or baby bottle. But, if BPA is added, without the identification of a regulatory “no risk” level, then those canned goods will have to contain such a label. Otherwise, companies will be subject to Proposition 65 lawsuits. The thing about Prop 65 is that it contains a bounty hunter provision, which allows private enforcement, and allows plaintiff firms to recover attorneys’s fees. Proposition 65 also has a penalty provision of up to $2,500 per day for each violation. So, because of that, many firms just put labels on products that may contain listed chemicals that could result in exposure to protect themselves from suits.

But BPA is found in so many products. Now, a warning probably wouldn’t be required for a bike helmet, for example, made of polycarbonate plastic because there isn’t any exposure. But for food contact items, it is established that BPA leaches out of polycarbonate plastic and the linings of canned food. Which may mean that such companies are driven to found alternatives to avoid warnings.

In any event, it will be interesting to see what develops. Now, if you don’t want to be exposed to BPA, which is a hormone disruptor and is potentially harmful to fetuses and babies, you can skip polycarbonate plastic for food storage. For canned foods, go for fresh, frozen, dried or jarred instead of metal cans.

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Listening to the public’s growing concern about bisphenol A (BPA), Rubbermaid has published a list of its products that are BPA free and those that contain BPA.  The list contains pictures so the products are easily identifiable.  Those are pretty smart people over at Rubbermaid.  As summer approaches, and greedy entrepreneurial kids get ready to sell lemonade, you’ll be pleased to discover that the classic Rubbermaid pitchers are BPA free.

But what is even more frightening is the health effects associated with in utero exposure to bisphenol A.  It seems that BPA exposure during pregnant, especially certain critical times, can affect the way genes are expressed.  I've had a series of email communications with Randy L. Jirtle, PhD, Director of the Jirtle Laboratory at Duke University.  His research team published study that showed pregnant  Agouti mice fed BPA had offspring that were, instead of lean and brown-haired as they normally would have been, obese and blond haired.

BPA passes across the placenta.  And fetuses (and newborns) do not metabolize BPA quickly, unlike adults.  Fetuses and newborns lack or express at low levels the liver enzyme needed to deactivate BPA.  The necessary liver enzyme is not expressed until after birth, with the full complement at 3 months, but at about 25% of the adult level.  Thus, fetal and infant exposure at critical development stages may cause significant health effects, as Dr. Jirtle's research indicates.  Other scientists have similarly found low level exposures in utero in animal studies to cause significant ill effects.

What scared me those most is that according to Dr. Jirtle, “[t]he time between fertilization and blastocyst implantation is really the most sensitive period for deregulating the epigenome by environmental factors.”  It was at this time of early development that his study determined that exposure to BPA would change the coat color of Agouti mice.  Dr. Jirtle states that “if I was a woman who was pregnant – or thinking about becoming pregnant – I would try hard to avoid exposure to BPA.”

If you are trying to get pregnant, then you might want to work to eliminate BPA exposure. 

So what can you do?  If you are trying to get pregnant, eliminate exposures to BPA.  It is important to eliminate exposures when you are trying because the window Dr. Jirtle identified is usually before we even know we are pregnant.  Do not use polycarbonate plastic.  Choose glass, stainless steel, polyethylene plastic, and ceramic over polycarbonate plastic.  Polycarbonate plastic is identified by the "7" (although this actually means "other plastic" so not all "7" plastic is polycarbonate plastic).  If you are using polycarbonate plastic, don't heat it!  Heat increases leaching significant.  Since BPA is also present in epoxy linings of metal cans, choose glass containers for "canned" goods instead.  And, Dr. Jirtle's research shows that folate shields fetuses against BPA, so make sure you are taking a supplement – just don't over do it!

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