Parents edgy over plastic turn to glass baby bottles

New parents across America are taking a second look at a playpen favorite of the 1950s: glass baby bottles.

Replaced long ago in most U.S. households by unbreakable plastic, glass bottles are making a comeback prompted by worries about a chemical used in making the plastic.

When Amber Rickert of Los Angeles first heard that a chemical might be leaching from plastic baby bottles, she felt sick -- and immediately bought glass bottles.

"For me, it was like a total no-brainer. I didn't even think about it twice," said Rickert, 34, who got wind of the subject from an online bulletin board for mothers.

"A bunch of women are switching," she said.

A report, "Toxic Baby Bottles," released in February by a Los Angeles environmental-advocacy group, helped fuel new interest.

Afterward, business soared at Web sites selling glass bottles and prices jumped on eBay.

Evenflo, a maker of both glass and plastic baby bottles, saw a surprise surge in demand for glass.

"It really caught us unawares," said John Geleynse, owner of Lamby Nursery Collection, a baby-products distributor in Lynden, Whatcom County, that ran out of glass bottles two months ago and doesn't know when it will get another shipment.

Bisphenol A

At issue is bisphenol A, or BPA. It is used in making hard polycarbonate plastic, which is clear and shatterproof. It is used to make plastic baby bottles, microwave cookware, food packaging and many other products.

BPA can leach from polycarbonate plastic, and the chemical is found in most people's blood. Federal regulators have taken no action to restrict its use, and the plastics industry says it is safe.

However, the chemical mimics the sex hormone estrogen. In tests on animal fetuses and animal newborns, low doses caused reproductive harm, including damage that can lead to prostate disease, breast cancer and birth defects.

Many scientists suspect BPA can have similar effects on humans, although this has not been proved.

Mary Brune, the founder of Making Our Milk Safe, an Alameda, Calif.-based group with 500 members nationwide, called the recent alert about BPA "an outrage and a call to action."

"We're talking about baby bottles, something that's giving nourishment to your child," she said. "Nothing's more basic than that."

Orders for glass bottles from upset parents poured in to Natural Baby, an Ohio-based online store, after the report in February.

"It was just a nightmare," General Manager Jennifer Thames said. "You would not believe some of the customers -- how angry they were."

Lab findings

The baby-bottle report in February was released by Environment California Research & Policy Center in Los Angeles. It said lab tests showed that the bottles leached BPA "at dangerous levels found to cause harm in numerous animal studies."

The report said the plastic broke down with use, allowing the chemical to leach into the liquid.

Five popular bottle brands were selected for testing: Avent, Evenflo, Playtex, Gerber and Dr. Brown's. All leached the chemical, the report said.

"When this story broke, we got more e-mails and phone calls than we've ever gotten from concerned parents asking what to do," said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California.

But a representative for the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va., said many studies had upheld the safety of products made with BPA.

"It's unfortunate that Environment California is scaring parents about the safety of polycarbonate bottles," Steve Hentges said.

"The scientific evidence supports the use of these bottles."

Studies regarding BPA leaching have been conducted for at least 20 years, Hentges said. At issue, he said, is how much the chemical leaches and whether it is harmful.

"All of these studies have been evaluated by government bodies around the world," he said.

"Based on those evaluations, polycarbonate baby bottles are accepted as safe for use around the world."