Bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA, is a chemical compound primarily used to harden plastic. While the industry that makes BPA says that it is safe, there have been several reports lately about how it could be toxic to the human body because it mimics the sex hormone estradiol when exposed to high temperatures and/or certain dish detergents. In mice and rats there is evidence that low doses of bisphenol A can cause structural damage to the brain, hyperactivity, abnormal sexual behavior, increased fat formation, early puberty and disrupted reproductive cycles. And according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Cincinnati, early exposure to a widely used industrial chemical in plastics manufacture may be linked to prostate cancer later in life. So it would be good to avoid it, right? Well, that might be hard to do considering that it is in so many plastic products, including those reusable plastic water bottles people are starting to use and even baby bottles…and you don’t want to fill a newborn with toxins - they just got started! Here is a list of studies that show how BPA could be affecting us: