How is bisphenol A? Low consumer awareness

Since yesterday, the EU’s ban on the production of plastic bottles containing bisphenol A plastic bottles has come into effect, and in addition, any bisphenol A plastic bottles will be banned from importing to member countries in June this year.

Yesterday, the reporter visited the market and found that PC bottles containing bisphenol A were still sold normally, and many products did not clearly indicate whether they contained “bisphenol A” and consumer awareness was low.

China also has a limited number of regulations According to reports, bisphenol A, also known as "polycarbonate," is a chemical substance that is widely used in plastics manufacturing. Many plastic containers such as baby bottles and beverage bottles contain this substance. It is reported that the reason why the EU banned the use of bisphenol A vials is that the substance may have effects on human development, immune response, or tumor proliferation. At present, there is no conclusion on the question of how much bisphenol A is ingested at once, whether the substance will accumulate in the human body and whether it will be released during heating of the product. However, the intake of bisphenol A will harm the human body and consensus has been reached.

For bisphenol A in food packaging, China also has national standards. The current GB14942-1994 "Sanitary Standards for Polycarbonate Resins Used in Food Containers and Packaging Materials" specifies the amount of bisphenol A used: one liter of distilled water contains phenols ≤ 0.05 mg. Experts told reporters that according to regulations, each PC plastic product must be tested for bisphenol A. If it is a qualified PC material, the general bisphenol A will not exceed the standard.

Most bottlers did not label reporters to find that in supermarkets and shopping malls in Shanghai, plastic milk bottles accounted for more than 90% of the shelf space, only two or three glass bottles. In these plastic milk bottles, the reporter only saw a bottle named “This product has passed the 'Bisphenol A' test”, and most Chinese plastic bottles rarely have a Chinese label clearly indicating whether they contain bisphenol A. Several baby supplies store salespersons told the reporter that because there are currently no mandatory regulations in China requiring baby products to be clearly labeled as containing bisphenol A, manufacturers have not done this work.

"What is Bisphenol A? We don't know!" The reporters who interviewed several randomly interviewed customers answered the question. The salesperson said that the plastic bottles are not easily broken and sold well. The plastic bottles without Bisphenol A are often more expensive than regular PC bottles of the same volume. Our reporter Huang Yiping [Related Links]

■ To identify whether a plastic product contains bisphenol A, consumers can identify it by using plastic bottle bottom triangle recycling mark. Pay attention to the numbers in the triangle. It is safer to choose 1, 2, 4 and 5 plastic products. If there are “7” or “58” and PC is written below, the product may contain bisphenol A.

■ The best choice for glass bottles. If using plastic bottles, the temperature should not exceed 100°C during sterilization. Use specialized sterilization pots and do not disinfect the bottles in a microwave oven. Plastic bottles will wear out after repeated sterilization, and the amount of dissolved bisphenol A will increase. Therefore, it will be replaced in a few months, generally not exceeding 8 months.