Nerys Ghemor wrote:
I wonder if drinking out of--and cooking in--plastic containers that had BPA in it could have contributed to this. While there's not a consensus on the toxicity of BPA, looking at some of the other effects that are strongly suspected for it makes me wonder if it, or a similarly widespread chemical, could be having that effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Health_effects |
The dangers of polycarbonates are vastly exaggerated. Yes, they do release BPA when exposed to heat or light, but it's generally not an issue unless you leave a bottle of water in a hot car in direct sunlight all day before drinking from it, or you use plastic containers to cook things in.
Obviously they still degrade slowly in normal conditions, but the rate is negligible. Yes, you will always be exposed to some BPA when you consume things from such containers, but under normal circumstances, it will take such a long time for the damage to become noticeable that you'll probably have age-related conditions to worry about anyway.
There's a reason that such bottles/containers have warnings like 'keep out of sunlight', 'do not reuse' (that one is also due to bacterial growth) or 'not suitable for cooking' on them, and people who ignore warnings deserve to lose their sperm anyway. Natural selection!