If any of you had that fictional, adage spewing mother prominently featured in retro sitcoms and modern cleaning supply commercials, I'm sure you've heard this saying before: You are what you eat. And though this idea is usually used to promote broccoli and vilify donuts, it turns out that there's more to it then you'd think. Food isn't the enemy; but its packaging can be.
Bisephonel-A (BPA) is a toxic chemical that can be found in food packaging, including water bottles, canned products, and soda can liners. But BPA isn't just in your food packaging: by now, it's in your body. BPA is present in 90% of Americans. The same chemical linked to soup cans and soda bottles is also linked to some serious side effects, including cancer, infertility, and sexual dysfunction. Even if you're only exposed to low-level doses, it doesn't take much BPA to put you at risk. The Endocrine Society released a special statement last summer explicitly warning that low-level exposure to BPA can adversely affect male and female reproduction, thyroid function, metabolism, and could even increase obesity.
Right now women under 25 are the fastest growing segment of the infertile community. Our reproductive health is being compromised on a daily basis just by drinking water from a plastic bottle or eating a slice of cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving. It's time to let the FDA know that the health of young women is more valuable than corporate profits. When the FDA releases its BPA review on November 30, the agency should call for an immediate ban on the use of BPA in any and all food packaging, including baby bottles and can linings, and should further require companies to fully test and disclose the nature of all chemical ingredients used in food packaging and linings.
Let the FDA know it's not OK for bottles or food packaging to contain dangerous chemicals. Tell FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that enough is enough. MomsRising and CREDO Action have a petition which they'll deliver to the FDA next week. We only have a few days left to gather signatures, so please sign the petition (http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/fda_no_bpa/) and share it with your friends today!
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nooooooo not my cranberry sauce! I can't let my mother see this, we have a 'fight' every Thanksgiving over the real cranberry sauce (the stuff in a can, obviously) and the fake cranberry sauce (with those chunks in it). But they should get all this gross stuff out of my cranberry sauce. Yuck.