Health Canada survey: BPA in bottled water, baby food jars not a risk to consumer

You would have to drink 1000 liters of bottled water a day to approach Canada’s provisional tolerable daily intake for the chemical bisphenol A, according to the latest research by Health Canada.  (Not only is this practically impossible, rapid consumption of even six or seven liters of water in the space of a few hours could kill you, a rather dramatic illustration of the principle that anything can be poisonous if consumed in large enough quantities).

Health Canada tested a total sample of 68 bottles of 54 different bottled water products marketed under 21 brands from 16 companies. Levels of BPA averaged 1.5 parts per billion and it noted that

“The contribution of BPA levels in bottled water to the overall exposure is negligible for the general population, and the consumption of water from polycarbonate carboys does not pose a safety concern.”

A separate survey of BPA in 122 baby food products prepackaged in glass jars with metal lids -

“clearly indicate that exposure to BPA through the consumption of jarred baby food products would be extremely low.  The low levels of BPA found in jarred baby food products available for sale in Canada confirms Health Canada’s previous assessment conclusion that the current dietary exposure to BPA through food packaging uses is not expected to pose a health risk to the consumer.”

Environmental activists have warned the public that drinking water from plastic water bottles puts them at risk for man boobs and diabetes, while news organizations, such as USA Today have warned that the levels of  BPA in plastic bottles are associated with cancer, early onset puberty, and obesity.

Pew/AAAS Findings on Scientists’ Attitudes Toward Global Warming, Media Coverage Replicate Earlier STATS Surveys

A major new survey of scientists released by the Pew Research Center comes to some of the same conclusions reached by earlier STATS surveys of scientific opinion. The Pew survey can be found here.

From May 1 to June 14, 2009, Pew surveyed a random sample of 2533 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. The survey included questions on the causes of global warming and on media coverage of scientific studies. In both cases the findings were virtually identical to those of a 2007 STATS survey of climate scientists and a 2009 STATS survey of toxicologists.

When Pew asked scientists for their opinion of global warming, 84 percent said “the earth is getting warmer because of human activity.” This echoes the finding of STATS’ 2007 survey of 489 climate scientists, 84 percent of whom said they personally believed human-induced warming is now occurring, and 74 percent agreed that “currently available scientific evidence” substantiates its occurrence.

The Pew survey also asked what scientists thought about the media coverage of science in general. Seventy-six percent called it a “major problem” that news reports fails to distinguish between “studies that are well founded and studies that are not.” This finding recalls STATS’ 2009 survey of 937 toxicologists, 67 percent of whom said the news media was very poor at distinguishing between “studies that are statistically rigorous and those that are not.”

The STATS survey of the Society of Toxicology can be found here and its survey of Climate Scientists can be found here.