The majority of plastic baby bottles marketed to parents of young children has known carcinogens and can leak these toxins over time when washed with harsh dishwashing soap. Recent tests have also shown that BPA can and do migrate from polycarbonate when used in a microwave oven.
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Besides baby bottles, a common source of plastic used in food storage can be found in the plastic polycarbonate lining of cans used to store and sell baby food. Another known plastic that can leach unfriendly toxins are based on Polyvinyl chloride or PVC.
Pregnant women should avoid BPA derived polycarbonate bottles and refrain from eating canned foods. The plastic lining in food cans contain polycarbonate. BPA is known to mimic the behavior of DES, an artificial estrogen banned for use by pregnant and nursing mothers.
BPA can be found in almost every human in the USA at some level. The reason is that BPA is a very common additive found in half of the formulated plastic resins. Make sure to check the labels and bottom of plastic bottles for the SPI codes, which appear as recycling triangles with numbers and letter codes. The codes are a general guideline for streamlining plastic recycling but can be implemented differently depending on the state of origin.
Some less hazardous plastics like PET or PETA, which is indicated by the number 1 inside the recycling triangle are safer than other plastics such as PVC and polycarbonate based resins. A plastic widely used in baby toys is HDPE and this is the number 2 inside the recycle triangle, it is also used in food containers.
The third plastic is called PVC and we know this to be commonly used in PVC pipes, but it can also be found in plastic food wraps, so look for the number three in the recycling triangle. Low Density Polyethylene is commonly known as LDPE and is plastic number 4, there are no known hazards as in BPA derived plastics, one reason why it is used in plastic food packages and soft sport bottles.
Plastic number 5 is a softer plastic used in some baby bottles and is BPA free, it is also know as polypropylene or PP in the SPI codes. Butter, margarine and yogurt are also packaged in polypropylene. Another plastic widely used in packaging food, especially egg cartons, is polystyrene or PS and is indicated by the number 6 in the recycle triangle.
The SPI originally had six codes, the number 7 was added to include new plastics that combined the resins of the previous six, and can include plastics with BPA or plastics derived from natural biodegradable sources.
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