Nutro Cat Food Recall

For all you cat owners out there ... Nutro Dry Food Recall.

BPA issues continue

A few weeks ago, I outlined the Baby Bottle Dilemma involving BPA. Today, a news story noted that more studies are showing links to cancer. Although the FDA is still calling the chemical safe, New Jersey has apparently taken steps to ban its sale and Canada is considering a similar step.

One of the groups doing the study is the National Toxicology Program. I wonder if the Angry Toxicologist will have a comment ...

The Baby Bottle Dilemma

You'd THINK that buying and using baby bottles would be easy? OH NO.

As I've discovered, that cute plastic bottle you are buying MIGHT (or might not) contain a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA) which MIGHT (or might not) start to leach out when the bottle is heated/cleaned/sterilized and that MIGHT (or might not) be dangerous to your baby in terms of promoting cancer, etc.

The "mights" are what make this scenario really stressful. Depending on who you talk to and what you read, you get totally different messages, like ...
"Bottles MUST be boiled to sterilize them"
vs "Bottles CAN'T be boiled ... it will release the bisphenol-A"
UGH.

The only thing I know for SURE is that GLASS BOTTLES are ok, so my mom dredged up 2 of my bottles from 35 years ago (thank goodness my family is a bunch of pack-rats) and luckily EvenFlo still makes some glass bottles (Evenflo 4-Ounce Classic Glass Nurser 3 Pack, unfortunately no longer Made in U.S.A. but Hecho en Mexico) with the awesome product description of "Why risk having your baby ingest chemicals when you don't have to?" I am not the only one to have thought of glass, by the way; there is an article from April 2007 talking about the run on glass bottles after California released a toxicology report on the baby bottle issue.

However, even EvenFlo admits that plastic bottles are better as baby gets older and wants to carry/hold the bottle themselves. So, I set about researching plastic bottles. I found a good article that was originally written by Consumer Reports and is now on the Ecomall.com site, talking about the bisphenol-A bottle issue; here are the highlights:

* The FDA does not believe there is an issue with bisphenol-A, so these bottles are still on the market
* BPA leaches from bottles made of polycarbonate (clear, shiny) when they are exposed to heat (microwave, dishwasher, boiling, etc). Bottles made of glass or polyethylene (dull/opaque) don't have the issue
* As you may already have some bottles, and not know what they are made of, the advice given in the article is this:

---- Dispose of: All clear, shiny plastic baby bottles, unless the manufacturer tells you they're not made of polycarbonate.

---- Replace with: Bottles made of glass or an opaque, less-shiny plastic (the plastic bottles are often colored).

The Angry Toxicologist (my favorite blogger) has had a few comments on the BPA issue over the past year that I found enjoyable and interesting, too.

In the meantime, as I wait for my wonderful glass bottles to arrive from Amazon, I am left pondering my NUK starter set, which is 3 cute, clear plastic bottles. I wrote Gerber to confirm what the bottles were made of -- hoping that I could still use them -- and here is their response:

Safety is our top priority at Gerber Products Company. We have a history of helping parents raise happy, healthy babies, since 1928.

We are aware of recent media reports focusing on polycarbonate and Bisphenol-A (BPA). Bisphenol-A is a key component used to make polycarbonate plastic.

We would like to help consumers understand why leading manufacturers of baby bottles, including Gerber, have concluded that polycarbonate is safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has considered relevant data available regarding the use of polycarbonate and has concluded that products made with polycarbonate are safe for use as intended. Additionally, other leading scientific and regulatory authorities in Europe have concluded that the use of food contact polycarbonate for baby bottles is safe. In a recent letter to FIT Pregnancy magazine, the FDA stated that it sees no reason to ban or otherwise restrict the currently authorized food contact applications of polycarbonate.

The following Gerber Bottles are made of polycarbonate:
NUK® Orthodontic - 5oz
NUK® Orthodontic - 10oz ComfortHold® - 5oz with Slow Flow
ComfortLatch® Nipple ComfortHold® - 9oz with Slow Flow
ComfortLatch® Nipple Preemie - 2.5 oz

The following Gerber Bottles are not made of polycarbonate:
Gerber Clear View
Gerber Fashion Tint Gerber Gentle Flow

Best wishes from your friends @ gerber.com

Well, thanks for the note, Gerber. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who agree.

However ...

It took my husband and I three years to finally make our little boy. If there is a chance that he might be hurt by these plastics, we simply can't take a chance on them. So I'm going to go out and spend the oodles of money for a few of these new non-BPA plastic bottles (e.g. Medela makes some that match the breast pumps, and Born Free makes some as well) and a couple of glass ones. And, some lucky person on Craig's List -- a person who thinks that the BPA scare is a bunch of tree huggin' crap -- is going to get a great deal on a lot of plastic bottles.

Eat Local!

To continue in the spirit of Earth Day last week, this is an idea whose time has come: Eat Local. (Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say come again. I don't think that this concept would seem very revolutionary to our great-grandparents.)

A take-out eatery has just opened in Seattle, Washington, USA. Eat Local is Pro-local agriculture, Pro-local business, Environmentally Friendly, and Sustainable. It's got it all. What a fabulous idea!

I'm pretty sure that I don't have the entrepreneurial food-service expertise to try such an undertaking myself, but that doesn't mean I'm just waiting on the curb for "Eat Local" to open up a shop near me. There is a flood of interest in local produce (safer, less cost/pollution to move to market, supporting local economy, etc.) so finding additional resources and information is easy as locally-baked pie.

The pet food poisoning has focused a lot of attention on the safety issues that imported food can represent: other countries don't necessarily have the same regulations that you might be used to and there is also the opportunity for terrorist interception and tampering. Very little food is being inspected right now, for example, that is entering the USA.

Another aspect of the produce industry that is coming to light: Organic is not the same thing as Local. While this may seem obvious on the surface, consider that:

1. Organic in that other country may be defined differently than in your own


2. If the distributer isn't labeling Country-of-Origin on the canned or processed good; how do you know


3. If you are buying organic to be environmentally sensitive, if it comes from China and you live in the USA, it's consumed a lot of fuel and energy to come here.

Everyone is starting to jump into the Local bandwagon, at least here in the US, and while sometimes this type of behavior is a bad thing, I don't believe this to be the case in this instance. Local governments and states are starting to encourage local businesses and farms, Corporations like Whole Foods are starting to reach out to local businesses and support fledgling farms, Local groups and blogs are writing about the trials and triumphs of eating local, and
Special events are being planned to highlight local produce and grow the market.

All of this attention gives the average Nitpicky Consumer a lot of good options.

I just did a few quick web searches for "local farmers markets northern virginia united states" and within minutes I had links to all sorts of local markets, including the oldest continuing market at the same site in the united states: Alexandria Farmers Market. I plan on checking it out in a few weeks, and I'll report back!