The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

Bree Shirvell graduated in May 2008 from George Washington University with a degree in political science in journalism. She is currently a freelance writer in New York, and has wrote for La Cucina Italiana, OZOlife, ToTheCenter, and PG Media.

As if eating right wasn’t hard enough, a new study has found that anyone who was ever concerned about storing food in plastic containers had good reason to worry.

A study conducted by the University of Rochester and published in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal found that the chemical Bisphenol A may not only linger in the body longer than originally thought, but may never actually leave the body.

(Photo taken outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music during its run of Sex and the City, by Libby Batten)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is commonly used to make many hard plastic products such as reusable plastic bottles, and plastic food storage containers. BPA leaks into food and liquid that is stored in containers made from the chemical. The chemical is then transferred into the body when that food or liquid is consumed. The Federal Drug Administration approved BPA for all use, in part because scientists use to believe the chemical metabolized quickly in the human body and was gone within 24 hours.

Now it stands to reason that a chemical used to make hard plastic wouldn’t be good for people. Scientists have linked BPA to increased rates of breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, but since the chemical was believed to exit the body within a few hours and the risk of becoming sick from BPA increases with the length of exposure, it wasn’t considered overly dangerous.

Over the past few years, as concern over the environment has mounted, many people have tried to reduce their dependence on plastic by turning to glass and other materials to store food. Those efforts, however applaudable, will do nothing to stop the damage that has already been done.

The University of Rochester tested urine samples from 1,469 adults in the United States and compared levels of BPA with the amount of time the adult had fasted before giving the sample. The results revealed that almost 93 percent of those tested had trace amounts of Bisphenol A in their bodies.

While there are some who question the results of the study, the Canadian government has already banned the use of BPA in many plastics including baby bottles and fourteen states in the United States are considering similar measures.

Until such measures are passed and more research on BPA is conducted it appears the only safe thing to do is to reduce the amount of food and liquid one eats that has been stored in BPA containers and substitute those plastic food storage containers for glass or metal ones.

bpa, bisphenol a, plastic, food storage, public health