Bisphenol-A Poisons Pregnant Women — and Everyone Else, Too

While pregnancy is wonderful (the miracle of life and all that), it brings a massive list of things moms-to-be can't eat: alcohol, soft cheeses, raw fish — and so on and so forth. A new study shows that pregnant women may want to think about eliminating canned vegetables, too.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and six other institutions recently studied women's bisphenol-A (BPA) levels during pregnancy. BPA is a hormone-disrupting chemical that's found in everything from credit card receipts to plastic bottles to some cigarette filters. Scientists looked at 386 pregnant women in the Cincinnati area and found that one of the greatest sources of BPA exposure came from eating canned veggies. Pregnant women who ate canned vegetables every day were 44 percent more likely to show BPA in their urine than those who didn't eat canned produce. So much for loading up on vitamin-rich veggies to give baby the nutrients he/she needs.

BPA has come under quite a bit of scrutiny lately as studies indicating its potential health impacts keep rolling in. BPA's been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and early-onset puberty in people. In lab animals, the findings are even scarier: Animals exposed to BPA while in the womb were more likely to develop prostate and mammary gland cancers, obesity, and reproductive problems, according to Environmental Health News.

While researchers specifically looked at women who ate canned veggies, BPA's hardly limited to vegetables. Researchers from the National Work Group for Safe Markets, a coalition of environmental and public health groups, recently tested 50 canned goods from across the U.S. to produce its "No Silver Lining" report. The study found BPA in every single can tested, including soups, veggies, beans, sodas, milk — even certified organic canned goods contained BPA. The chemical also regularly turns up in plastics, packaged foods, dental treatments, water bottles, credit card receipts, and other products.

The problem isn't the can itself, but rather the lining of the can. The lining contains BPA, which then seeps into the food inside. Some companies like Eden Organic pioneered new types of BPA-free linings, but so far, the majority of companies are slow to embrace these new packagings. Plus, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is dragging its heels on even acknowledging the risks associated with BPA in foods, nevermind actually regulating the chemical itself. "You can't avoid it unless you get rid of it [BPA]," Harvard School of Public Health's Joe Braun, lead author of the study, told Environmental Health News. "Much of this is a failure in current laws to adequately address non-voluntary chemicals which could harm our health."

Pregnant women shouldn't see this study and stop eating their veggies — stay away from canned goods, and instead, opt for fresh or frozen produce. Regulating BPA at the state and federal level could take awhile, so in the meantime, it's up to consumers to demand that food producers adopt safer packaging. Sign our petition asking Del Monte Foods to eliminate BPA from its canned goods by switching to BPA-free can linings.

Photo credit: Bludgeoner86 via Flickr