First of all, most of us don’t drink enough water. We get symptoms of mild dehydration that include weight gain, high cholesterol, premature aging, heartburn and constipation.

Tap water isn’t the answer. It’s got traces of contaminants that include arsenic (obviously bad for you), aluminum (which can cause a variety of problems including learning problems in children, Parkinson’s, and liver disease), disinfection byproducts from using chlorine that are carcinogenic, flouride, and more.

Bottled water? Forty percent of it is simply tap water. Add the plastics chemicals like BPA, and you’re ingesting some stuff that’s genuinely bad for you, not to mention bad for the landfills.

Distilled water? Not good for you. Period.

Alkaline water? Useful for detoxification for a short term. Period.

Vitamin waters? They contain high-fructose corn syrup, and are just about as bad for you as soda, causing weight gain and delivering plastics chemicals from the bottle.

Filtered tap water? It’s the way to go. Carbon block filters, possibly combined with reverse osmosis or ion exchange, provide the safe water we need.

Mercola says he’s going to be launching a line of high-performing water filters.

Now, I think he ought to be promoting Multi-Pure, the best filters, certified by NSF, that are available. I am sure that whatever his line of filters will be, it won’t perform any better than Multi-Pure.

So, consider his argument! Take a look at the home water filters available, and you’ll agree that Multi-Pure does the best job and is guaranteed for life (provided you change the filters on schedule).

Source: http://www.mercola.com/article/water.htm

The study was released online today at the journal Pediatrics, and involves 244 Cincinnati-area mothers whose urine was tested for BPA twice during pregnancy and at childbirth. Then when the children reached age 3, the women evaluated their children’s behavior using questionnaires.

The researchers found a positive correlation between increasingly high urine levels of BPA in pregnancy and worse behavior in the daughters. For every 10-fold increase in BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires. Oddly enough, no such correlation was found for sons.

The lead author, Joe Braun, is a research fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health. He warned that such behavior changes could have dramatic implications for the population as a whole.

But another BPA researcher, Charles McKay of the Connecticut Poison Control Center, criticized the study for not recording other factors that could also affect the results. For example, mothers with poor eating habits might the the ones with the highest levels of BPA, and perhaps they continue to eat poorly and feed their children poorly, causing behavior problems.

BPA is a plastics additive widely used in our environment in things like water and soda bottles and cans, tin can liners, cash register receipts, and on and on. The FDA is in the midst of a review of its safety.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_9e185d93-ed15-58d0-a276-72c557d98d3d.html

College of St. Benedict and Macalester College both are banning the sale and purchase of bottled water on campus. Bottled water results in landfills full of plastic bottles, not to mention causing consumers to pay for something that’s basically free, said students on the campuses in interviews with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. And then there’s the BPA issue–who wants extra estrogen in their water?

Bottled water usage peaked in 2007 at 29 gallons per capital in the U.S. By 2010 it had fallen a bit to 28.3 gallons per capita.

So what will the students and faculty on the campuses be drinking? More soda? Not at St. Benedict. This campus is installing new water fountains.

The College of St. Benedict has installed at least one “hydration station” in each building. Will it be filtered water? All told, the stations cost about $20,000. After subtracting the cost of water coolers in offices and water bottles for events, the college will make that back in about a year, a college spokesman told the Star Tribune. But the college will lose another $5,000 to $6,000 per year in profits from the sale of bottled water on the campus. It will work out. “In the long run, we are going to save money,” said Judy Purman, director of sustainability.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/129195988.html

That’s what a researcher from New York says. Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD, a scientist at the Wadsworth Center and professor of environmental health and toxicology at State University of New York/Albany, discussed a study he co-authored, published Aug. 15 in Environmental Science and Technology.

The chemical BPA is a synthetic estrogen found in bottled water bottles, soda bottles and cans, food cans, dental fillings, and so on. Researchers have found it causes cancer as well as other health problems, but industry has succeeded so far in not having it banned. The chemical is in a review process at the FDA currently.

The study looked at BPA levels in 156 forms of paper money from 21 countries. All of them contained BPA. But while money may contain high levels of BPA, the skin provides an absorption barrier. Small amounts were found to be absorbed through the skin, said Kannan, according to WebMD.

He recommended that people rinse their hands after handling money, and that cashiers wear gloves to limit their exposure.

Meanwhile, an industry scientist scoffs. Steven G. Hentges, PhD, of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council, pooh-poohs Kannan’s investigation.

“Finding trace levels of BPA in currency is neither surprising nor a concern,” he told WebMD.  “Human exposure to BPA from contact with paper currency is minor and orders of magnitude below science-based safe intake levels set by regulatory authorities worldwide. Furthermore, available data suggests that BPA is not readily absorbed through the skin.”

Now Kannan and colleagues are looking at BPA levels in newspaper and toilet paper.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21744851

http://www.webmd.com/news/20110812/study-paper-money-contains-traces-of-bpa

More than 60,000 chemicals could get into our drinking water, while the EPA patrols limits on fewer than 100 of them, says the magazine. Are old pipes in your city water system adding interesting things to the mix? The article details a lot of things to worry about.

Is bottled water a solution? Not according to Reader’s Digest, which headlined a small article “6 Reasons Bottled Is All Wet.” For one thing, it’s generally just tap water. For another, it costs a fortune to move around. They didn’t even dwell on the BPA issue, where plastic bottles introduce false estrogens into our bodies. Experts consulted all seem to be drinking tap water; Reader’s Digest suggests a home water filter. More RD advice:

1. Pick a filter or system certified by NSF International, “which sets recognized standards in this field.”

2. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installation and use.

3. Replace filters on schedule. Otherwise you invite bacteria growth.

According to Reader’s Digest, you can consider a carbon filter in a pitcher, an under-sink model that includes reverse-osmosis technology, or a whole-house system.

Good news! Multi-Pure fits the bill on all of these with a proven, reliable set of filters, NSF-certified, to meet the level of filtering you want.

Source: Reader’s Digest, August 2011, pp. 102-113.

That flaw? Previous studies have relied on a single dose administered, then effects tracked.  Pretty soon, most of the BPA leaves the system. The toxicity levels are based on studies like this in mice. But in reality, our bodies are bombarded daily with the chemical, which is found in tin can linings, on store receipts, in plastic bottles for soda and water, in aluminum soda cans, and on cardboard food packages.

Rosenfeld decided to track effects in mice of chronic lower-dose exposure, comparing a large one-shot dose to a smaller amount of BPA administered daily over time. The results? The mice fed the chronic diet excreted most of the BPA after 24 hours, but 7 days later demonstrated a higher level of BPA in the blood than they had at the 24-hour point. So the body is holding onto the BPA under a chronic exposure.

A colleague, Gail Prins, summarized it this way: blood concentrations of the bioavailable form of BPA became higher when daily diet was the source, even though total BPA consumption was a bit lower in the mice dosed in food versus those given a single oral dose.

The FDA needs to take BPA toxic effects seriously and do a better job of protecting our health, rather than the interests of those who are producing 8 billion pounds per year of this stuff.

Source: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2011/2011-06-20-091.html

The controversial false estrogen is found in plastic soda and water bottles as well as in linings for tin cans, on store receipts, and in other places. It’s been found to cause cancer in animals, and the long-term effects of human exposure are unknown. Meanwhile, the FDA is considering whether to take action to regulate the substance, in the face of an outcry from the food industry, and various states have passed or are considering action.

Researchers at the FDA reported study results in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (May 20, 2011), reported Consumers Union. BPA in a variety of canned foods was checked. “The highest levels of BPA found in the FDA study were almost four times higher than the highest levels detected in a similar but smaller study published in Consumer Reports in 2009.”

The new study study of popular canned foods confirmed Consumer Reports’ findings that BPA levels can vary widely, even in cans containing food from the same lot. “Consumers have no idea how much BPA they may be exposed to from any given can,” said Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., Consumers’ Union’s Director of Technical Policy .

But the highest levels in the FDA study increase CU’s concerns about health impact. “As we previously reported, just one to a few servings of some of these foods can expose consumers, especially children, to levels of BPA that have caused harm in animal studies,” Dr. Rangan said. “We believe this is an unacceptably slim margin of safety and that consumers should not have to ingest BPA.”

The Consumers’ Union press release “urges federal action to ban BPA in all food and beverage containers so that all consumers will be protected.”

Source: http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_food_safety/017777.html

Here ‘s what the article had to say about bottled water: “This water can be contaminated (and sometimes more contaminated) than your tap water. Add the BPA content of the plastic bottles and they are simply bad news. Reusable stainless steel bottles are the only choice.”

Then it goes on to explain what BPA is– bisphenyl A, a compound used in the manufacture of plastics.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,140371.html

Last month, 26 percent of Coca-cola shareholders expressed concern about BPA, asking the company to reveal its plans for the future concerning the chemical. But that wasn’t a large enough proportion for the top brass to do anything about it. Muhtar Kent, CEO and chairman, told shareholders the company did not believe there was sufficient scientific evidence to stop using BPA in the linings of its cans.

But there’s no scientific evidence showing it’s safe to use it, either.  To the contrary!

BPA, the synthetic estrogen that stiffens water and soda bottles and lines tin cans, is also found lining beverage cans. The use of the chemical, found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, is being called into question by many these days. There are researchers who are calling for a legal overhaul, so that the government will stop permitting chemicals in our environment without testing them first.

Source: http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/On-your-radar/BPA/Coca-Cola-rejects-growing-calls-for-bisphenol-A-disclosure

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryan_fung/

After eating a diet of freshly prepared food with no plastic packaging for just three days, the amount of BPA in their urine dropped by an average of 66 percent.  After resuming their normal diets, their BPA levels went back up. Their normal diets included canned food and sodas, take-out or restaurant food, and other foods, such as microwavable meals, packaged in plastic, according to research colleague Sarah Johanssen, who reported that when the families returned to their normal diets, the BPA levels went back up.

BPA has been shown in animal studies to cause cancer. A false estrogen, it is often blamed for a variety of difficulties in humans, including early puberty for girls, late puberty for boys, and increased risk of future cancer for fetuses and infants.

Sources: Sarah Johanssen’s blog, Environmental Health Perspectives

Fastcompany.com took a look at that study and came up with six recommendations for reducing BPA exposure, for all of us.

1. Avoid bottled water. Drink tap water (filtered is best!) and use a stainless steel water bottle to take it with you.

2. Don’t eat microwaveable food in plastic packaging. Instead, eat fresh foods.

3. Don’t use plastic utensils.

4. Avoid all canned foods, unless the can is labeled BPA-free lining.

5. Don’t use plastic containers for leftovers. Instead, use glass ones. Don’t let the food touch the plastic cover.

6. Don’t drink coffee unless you’ve made it yourself with a French press or ceramic drip. This avoids contact between the liquid and plastic coffee makers.

Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1743599/this-is-how-to-avoid-bpa-in-your-daily-life

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasqui/246052186/