Last week, a study was released that found that most babies are born with detectable BPA levels. This is the chemical found in food containers that caused such a stir in the spring of 2008. So once again, there is a call for a nationwide ban on BPA, just like the one our neighbors to the north passed.
First, remember that the government can not protect you even if it wanted to. But, there is evidence time and again that the role of government is not to protect you. In the case of BPA, the FDA has declared it is safe and still hasn’t completed a review of this assessment. Furthermore, this is only one chemical. Take the example of fluoride, which is also a foreign chemical present in most newborns at birth. The difference here is that the state forces the public to absorb and ingest fluoride, while no one is forced to buy foods that come in BPA-laced packaging. On the contrary, almost immediately after news about BPA in baby bottles broke, BPA-free baby bottles were produced and marketed by the very same “evil” manufacturers that had up to that point been supposedly poisoning babies. As early as spring 2009, it was virtually impossible to buy a baby bottle with BPA. I suspect that adult products will soon follow suit if there is enough bad press.
[Thanks to Travis Holte.]
12:48 pm on December 6, 2009
