Hormone Disruptors in Canned Food: New Worries

Many canned fruits and vegetables are packed in cans lined with Bisphenol A , a plastic that is a known hormone disruptor. As you may remember, a couple of years ago, BPA was in the news a lot: reports had been surfacing , for example, that the chemical leaked from plastic baby bottles into breast milk. Studies were emerging that consistently linked the chemical to breast and testicular cancer, as well as a host of reproductive problems. A handful of states became so alarmed that they banned the chemical outright ( though, frustratingly, often only from products that wound up in baby's mouths).

Should We Be Worried?

Studies confirm what health and consumer advocates have been saying for years: there are too many synthetic toxins in too many everyday products; there is too little known about these toxins; and there is too little information about any of it for consumers to make intelligent decisions. It has become impossible to shop your way out of our toxic world.

So What To Do?

Noting that the CDC has discovered 212 chemicals " coursing through Americans' bodies," Senator Frank Lautenberg ( D-NJ ) has once again introduced a bill that would update- for the first time in 35 years- the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, the law overseeing chemical regulation. Under Lautenberg's bill, the EPA would survey the 80,000 chemicals in use today, only 200 of which have ever been adequately tested for their impact on human health. Chemicals the EPA considers risky would be required to be tested further. Rather than assume their products are safe, companies would have to prove it. This has been the model in Europe for years.