March 6th, 2012
There may be some hope for Campbell’s Soup Company. It seems they’ve given in to pressure from parents and advocacy groups and made themselves a pledge without a timeline.
The famed soup company has said they’ll phase out the use of BPA in their can linings. They say that efforts have already started and it shouldn’t cost them much to make the change.
If Campbell’s follows through with their promise, many folks will have a bit less BPA flowing through their veins. And that’s a good thing.
The scoop on BPA
The chemical bisphenol A, unlovingly called BPA for short, is an endocrine disruptor that can mess with the body’s hormones. It mimics the human hormone estrogen.
Girls who were exposed to BPA in the womb are more likely to have behavioral problems in their toddler years, say researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. (Read more about the BPA study.) And that’s just one of several studies that cast doubt on the innocence of this chemical.
A report by the Breast Cancer Fund found that Campbell’s products contain some of the highest levels of BPA among canned foods they tested. And it seems that products targeted toward children, like Campbell’s Disney Princess and Toy Story soups, had the highest amounts of BPA. Another BPA study found that after eating only fresh foods for three days, BPA levels in families plummeted by an average of 60 percent.
The FDA keeps saying that some exposure to BPA doesn’t pose a health threat. They claim that the low levels in food packaging shouldn’t alarm us, but most people understand that they aren’t fully considering the cumulative effects of this chemical in so many different foods. Like many people, I try to avoid canned food, but don’t always succeed. (Used some canned coconut milk in my Chicken Korma tonight!)
If you’re happy that Campbell’s has made this promise to hold the BPA, please tell them so. Even better, stay after them to follow through with this promise. The Breast Cancer Fund has made it easy for you to send an online letter to Campbell’s Soup Company, General Mills and Del Monte. They even give you some facts to state in your letter.
(image credits: flickr; flickr)
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