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Some unpleasant sources of BPA: Paper products
By Jeremiah | November 21, 2008
Photo by emdot, shared via Flickr.
I mentioned something in passing in our plastics conference call yesterday that I figured I'd better follow up on.
At ZRecs we have always maintained - both to concerned consumers and to companies making unsubstantiated claims about the safety of their products - that our goal as consumers and as a society should be to reduce our overall exposure levels to many chemicals, knowing that we will never completely eliminate them, at least not within our lifetimes. The production, use, and waste cycle of these products ensures that chemicals like these are present not only in a huge array of products, but in our environment as well. It is quite likely, for example, that there is some (very small) amount of BPA in your tap water.
Another example, and one most people aren't yet aware of, is paper products. The one I mentioned specifically on the call was toilet paper.
As it turns out (post-call research on my part) the source of BPA in toilet paper appears not to be that it is added deliberately to the product, but that a lot of toilet paper is made from post-consumer sources that include lots of recycled thermal printing paper (credit card receipts). Dresden University did a study examining BPA turning up in wastewater streams and traced it back to toilet paper as the culprit. We first learned about this study here and here.
Environmental regulators consider sources like this disconcerting because endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates can wreak havoc on marine ecosystems. Ultimately, it's sources like these that are the reason you probably have BPA (at extremely low concentrations) in your tap water, too.
The same thing goes for other kinds of recycled paper, too. When we add up all of the sources we now know of, BPA can be found at smaller levels, and less clear exposure levels, than the children's products we have been talking about for some time. These products include:
Consumer advocates and reporters like us often avoid raising topics like this for a few, closely-related reasons:
That said, we consider toilet paper to be a specific source of concern, for reasons a polite blogger should probably avoid getting into. Suffice to say that exposure is certain and frequent.
I also mentioned on the call that I don't believe there is currently enough scientific data to warrant fears about melamine tableware, or about chemicals leaching from #1, #2, and #5 plastics. A few isolated studies and alerts have come out on each of these but we believe a lot more rigorous data collection is needed before calling for any changes to regulation or to consumer habits. We may post more specifically about this if there is interest, or wait until we see more data and do so then.
I also discussed how our ability to test for these chemicals at lower and lower levels is steadily advancing, and that the scientific and regulatory community is going to face some challenging questions regarding what constitute acceptable levels of different chemicals. We'll write about that again in a future post.
At ZRecs we have always maintained - both to concerned consumers and to companies making unsubstantiated claims about the safety of their products - that our goal as consumers and as a society should be to reduce our overall exposure levels to many chemicals, knowing that we will never completely eliminate them, at least not within our lifetimes. The production, use, and waste cycle of these products ensures that chemicals like these are present not only in a huge array of products, but in our environment as well. It is quite likely, for example, that there is some (very small) amount of BPA in your tap water.
Another example, and one most people aren't yet aware of, is paper products. The one I mentioned specifically on the call was toilet paper.
As it turns out (post-call research on my part) the source of BPA in toilet paper appears not to be that it is added deliberately to the product, but that a lot of toilet paper is made from post-consumer sources that include lots of recycled thermal printing paper (credit card receipts). Dresden University did a study examining BPA turning up in wastewater streams and traced it back to toilet paper as the culprit. We first learned about this study here and here.
Environmental regulators consider sources like this disconcerting because endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates can wreak havoc on marine ecosystems. Ultimately, it's sources like these that are the reason you probably have BPA (at extremely low concentrations) in your tap water, too.
The same thing goes for other kinds of recycled paper, too. When we add up all of the sources we now know of, BPA can be found at smaller levels, and less clear exposure levels, than the children's products we have been talking about for some time. These products include:
- Credit card receipts
- Recycled cardboard pizza boxes and paper
- Beer and wine (vats are lined with a BPA-containing resin)
- Rubbermaid polycarbonate-lined baking tins used by Subway
- Soda cans and food cans
- Baby food jars (lids) and formula packaging (metal cans, glass jar lids, and paper packaging foil seals)
- Many non-polycarbonate plastics (including the color-changing plastics used by Sassy and others), in addition to PC
Consumer advocates and reporters like us often avoid raising topics like this for a few, closely-related reasons:
- Consumers often have difficulty managing their feelings about a given chemical, and think in terms of eliminating individual ones rather than chipping away at the overall chemical load of known harmful substances.
- We believe not all sources are created equal. BPA is found in many of these products at extremely low levels. Most of these also expose us to BPA in far less obvious ways, if at all, and more research is needed on the dose/effect relationship of different levels of BPA and other endocrine disruptors.
- We don't want people to feel powerless, or like the changes they make don't make a difference, because, to the best of our understanding of an emerging area of scientific scrutiny, they do make a big difference.
That said, we consider toilet paper to be a specific source of concern, for reasons a polite blogger should probably avoid getting into. Suffice to say that exposure is certain and frequent.
I also mentioned on the call that I don't believe there is currently enough scientific data to warrant fears about melamine tableware, or about chemicals leaching from #1, #2, and #5 plastics. A few isolated studies and alerts have come out on each of these but we believe a lot more rigorous data collection is needed before calling for any changes to regulation or to consumer habits. We may post more specifically about this if there is interest, or wait until we see more data and do so then.
I also discussed how our ability to test for these chemicals at lower and lower levels is steadily advancing, and that the scientific and regulatory community is going to face some challenging questions regarding what constitute acceptable levels of different chemicals. We'll write about that again in a future post.
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Chandra said: Sorry to do this here, but I was hoping to contact you about the newsletter. I’ve only received one and… [Mighty World, Playmobil, and the role of realism]
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I was so shocked when you brought this up on the call yesterday. I think this just demonstrates how important it is for us to focus on reducing. Buy less, use less, waste less, etc, so we pollute less.
It’s obviously not wise to recycle one bad product into another. Reduce, reduce, reduce.
Do you have any idea what the “safer” toilet papers are?
Wow. I’ll have to read up a bit more. I always said “family cloth” was something green I just couldn’t do...but if it’s for our health, I just might make the change.
Holy smokes. I didn’t know that about the brewskies. Sigh. Or my TP. Looking fwd to hearing podcast and anything else you’re looking to post about this topic....
When you mentioned BPA being in paper products on the call yesterday, I knew I had read something about it, but couldn’t remember any details at all. I’m so glad you took the time to research the issue - and now I remember that I did read an article about credit card receipts with the film on them (and other paper products) being used for recycled paper, hence putting BPA in the paper stream. Seems frustrating - since toilet paper from 100% post consumer recycled paper is what we use in our house to reduce our environmental impact. Seems like a pretty personal exposure!
But, like you said, I’m hesistant to bring this up to parents just dealing with baby bottles, formula and canned foods and beverages. That’s hard enough for most of them to address, let alone the toilet paper.
In any event, what I do think is important is that this highlights how chemicals permeate our lives. Knowing whether they are safe before we use them is critical.
I’m with you on the information not being developed to warn against 1, 2 or 5 plastic, or melamine. That being said, in my personal life, and because plastics come from non-renewable resources, I prefer to look for alternatives to plastic. So, if I’m asked, I’ll just recommend to people to choose an alternative if they can, although I do NOT recommend wholesale purging of plastics. That has a big environmental impact too.
Jennifer
http://www.thesmartmama.com
Thanks so much for the post - some very interesting (although disconcerting) information.
Somebody got on my case last time I advocated a reducing our buying of stuff, and unfortunately it seems that we need to spend our way out of the current financial crisis. But we need to stop buying so much stuff and creating the demand for BPA.
Hmm, so what toilet paper alternative choices do we have??
It’s so frustrating to make all these changes, I bought new sippys, glass storage, glass bottles, etc., and find out there’s this toilet paper thing.
At least my family is less exposed since we’ve already made these other changes. I’m ready to hear those toilet paper ideas though!
I’ve tried several brands of TP that bother me… so this sure makes me wonder! But if I’m understanding the article properly, this is only an issue with TP that uses recycled paper? I’ve seen TP advertised as recycled/post-consumer… I’m wondering if it has to be labeled as such??
I wonder if you would undertake a research project. As a breastfeeding/full-time working mother, I pump into Medela bottles (BPA-free) and my son drinks from Born Free bottles. However, when I freeze my milk (I also donate), I pour the milk into freezer bags - specifically those from Lansinoh - is there any chance these bags contain BPA?
Thanks so my J!
*deep breath* I find it incredibly difficult not to feel a little overwhelmed with all of the possible sources for nasty chemicals out there. Like a prior commenter, we switched sippies, bottles, food storage, and generally are trying to change out baby toys to reduce the number of potentially toxic chemical leaches.
I find it frustrating that the “safe” products tend to be more expensive. Makes for a difficult crisis of conscience.
Whew! I’m glad we use “family cloth”. That started when my oldest was potty training, I found it was easier for her to be independent with a cloth wipe than with TP. We hardly use any TP here, but I’m not sure how to share this new info with others :/
Jeremiah- As Lana mentioned, what toilet paper is safe? I have stopped buying toilet paper from recycled paper since I saw this post. Instead I have been buying regular TP. Is it safe if it doesn’t say made from recycled paper?
Lisa, it is a question of the paper being recycled or not, as it’s the reuse of thermal printing paper that is suspected to be the source. Any non-recycled toilet paper should, in theory, be free of BPA.
That said, I feel I should mention that there is no real information available for what kind of exposure we get from toilet paper.