BPA in BPA-Free Bottles? A mystery in Canada

Some very strange news out of Canada today. Scientists there claim to have found BPA leaching out of polypropylene bottles. While they haven't named names, their documents suggest that when subjected to high temperatures, such as in a dishwasher, these bottles leach trace amounts of BPA, which is baffling to parents who assumed that non-polycarbonate bottles contained zero BPA. These results are also baffling to some of the most trusted manufacturers of BPA-free bottles, including ThinkBaby and BornFree.

"We have not only three major global testing labs that test our products, but we also do biologic testing on our bottles, and the biologic type of testing is even more sensitive than anything that Health Canada could ever pull off, and it would pick up anything that even behaved like BPA," said Kevin Brodwick, founder and president of thinkbaby, whose products are made with medical-grade plastic specifically formulated to be free of bisphenol A, PVC, nitrosamines, phthalates, lead, melamine and biologically toxic chemicals.


Test results, conducted at least every quarter, consistently show "zero, complete non-detect for BPA," said Brodwick

Indeed, Alicia over at The Soft Landing posted this thoughtful commentary on the test results, suggesting that perhaps cross-contamination, particularly in the dishwashers used, could be partly to blame for these test results, which have not yet been duplicated.

I agree with Alicia that we need to take a step back and wait for more explanation and context regarding these results. As with all scientific results, until there is at least replication of results, we can't jump to any conclusions. I, for one, remain quite confident in my Born Frees and believe, as Brodwick does, that there is a plausible explanation for these strange results. As always, I will keep you posted.