If you’re like me, you started hearing about BPA and knowing it wasn’t a good thing when plastic containers started proudly announcing that they were BPA-free. You assumed that BPA was the only bad thing in the plastic because obviously the safety registration bodies were onto it now. So you went about life feeling extra virtuous when you picked out something with the ‘BPA-free’ tag.

One of BPA’s uses is to make tough plastics, so they are still used in baby bottles and toys, if you choose ones without the ‘BPA-free’ notification. Some toy brands haven’t even tried to minimise them and apparently lobby to limit regulation.

BPA’s are nasty and for our little ones with immature livers, are much more dangerous, though they still pose risks for us too.

BPA’s are strongly linked to:

• Adverse thyroid function
• Breast cancer
• Asthma
• Male sexual dysfunction and prostate cancer
• Heart disease
• Negative neurological effects such as hyperactivity and anxiety

BPA’s are not only in hard plastics, but are also dusted over our receipts, movie and plane tickets… Anything with thermal printing. I thought that when people in shops asked if I wanted a receipt, they were trying to be environmental and limit paper, but maybe there’s more to it.

With a foggy baby brain, I normally take my receipt as it still seems to get printed out anyway… The receipt then gets shoved into my bag, only to be dug out months later when my bag is so full to bursting point, the zip is threatening to explode. In the meantime, all that BPA dust on those receipts have covered everything else in the bag… My phone, wallet, keys, snacks, papers, baby things etc. All then constantly touch my hands and are wiped over me and my Isabella.

So here I am, typing, from my dust cloud of BPA to yours… My goodness, what a long way we’ve got to go!