//It’s all in the BPA//
At one point or another in life, you’re going to need to transport or travel with your food and drink. Going to work, holiday or just about anywhere from home is going to require a container of some sort. Whether it’s a can or food container, it is highly likely that you’ve transported your food in a container that contains the chemical known as Bisphenol A (BPA). Research over the years has pointed to the substance being toxic for humans, linking it to various illnesses including cancer. BPA can be found everywhere, from protein shakers to daily toiletries, it’s very easy to run into the potentially harmful substance.
//Discover and use//
Industry has a knack for discovering useful properties through combining chemicals, delivering performance and value without much consideration to long term health effects on humanity. BPA was found in the late 1800s, but it was only in the 50s where it would find its place in a wider consumer market. It would eventually become a key component in society and eventually become a consumed substance as it would leach into various food and drink. Arguments exist for and against the substance being harmful to the body and government regulation in numerous countries restrict usage in products aimed for a younger demographic. Finding conclusive evidence is hard but the suggested effects are concerning and include linked infertility, childbirth weight reduction, heart disease, increased estrogen like function and much more.
//Alternatives and testing//
If it’s such a problem, why don’t we replace it the substance used? It’s not quite easy as the nature of the food industry and other involve prolong storage durations. Many of the alternatives are either unfit for purpose or simply too expensive to use on widescale production of consumables. Scientists are hard at work theorising and modelling new chemical compositions with the aim to create a similar chemical to BPA without having estrogen like effects on the body. The new substance named tetramethyl bisphenol F (TMBF) may be the alternative that we seek but much testing and feasibility studies are needed to figure out if its intended functions will perform over a longer period of time and stay without negative effects elsewhere.
Pricing and potential risks are considerations that all scientists will keep in mind. It will be interesting to see how far new chemicals will go to make our lives safer and whether governments will step in to aid this effort. It is something that heavily influences of lives of people all over and perhaps over time, the benefits of alternatives will begin to manifest in generations to come.
Sources
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-bpa
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/watch-how-scientists-are-attempting-replace-ubiquitous-chemical-bpa-food-and-drink-cans
https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/bisphenol-bpa-use-food-contact-application