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I don't understand why so many people on HN are worried about BPS or BPA. So far studies have shown that it has detrimental effects on the developing brain (in

by ZoFreX 12y ago

I don't understand why so many people on HN are worried about BPS or BPA. So far studies have shown that it has detrimental effects on the developing brain (in extremely limited animal trials!). Presumably everyone on here is not an infant and their brain has developed... so why are you buying BPA/BPS free bottles?

iSnow 12y ago
Because I am a father?
- danielweber 12y ago
  From Freakonomics: No one is more susceptible to an expert’s fearmongering than a parent. Fear is in fact a major component of the act of parenting. A parent, after all, is the steward of another creature’s life, a creature who in the beginning is more helpless than the newborn of nearly any other species. This leads a lot of parents to spend a lot of their parenting energy simply being scared. The problem is that they are often scared of the wrong things. It’s not their fault, really. Separating facts from rumors is always hard work, especially for a busy parent. And the white noise generated by the experts — to say nothing of the pressure exerted by fellow parents — is so overwhelming that they can barely think for themselves. The facts they do manage to glean have usually been varnished or exaggerated or otherwise taken out of context to serve an agenda that isn’t their own.
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    That's great and all until you consider that all parents are doing here is managing their buying decisions, so even the "threat" is low, so is the solution. I'm pretty sure that quote was aimed at parents worried about e.g. third party kidnappings (which are insanely rare). Or who consider inoculations to be "dangerous" (without examining the danger of the other side). Switching from one type of bottle to another may do "nothing" in the medium to long term, but it also costs the parent an inconsequential amount. As long as you aren't exchanging one somewhat unsafe bottle for a much more unsafe bottle (e.g. bottles made of lead) you're likely fine or breaking even.
- ZoFreX 12y ago
  I should have clarified I meant why are adults buying them for themselves (as many people are) - obviously it makes sense to avoid BPA for kids' bottles!
runeks 12y ago
A lack of evidence that a substance is harmful does not corroborate the claim that it is safe. Personally, I'd rather not buy any products containing these relatively unknown substances, and completely avoid the risk of them being harmful. I think people are generally hesitant when it comes to filling their bodies with unknown chemicals. Animals avoid this by instinct (rats only eat small amounts of something they've never tasted before, in order to test its reaction in the body), humans mostly use science to try to gauge which chemicals are detrimental to the body. Of course, as with all activities involving the human mind, sometimes it can get out of hand (eg. parents not vaccinating their child because they believe it causes autism). But, all in all, I think the fundamental resistance to filling our bodies with unknown substances is quite healthy.
- ZoFreX 12y ago
  Your reasoning seems sound to me. That said, can we really rule out the possibility that stainless or glass or silicone will have problems found in them? We may have been using (some of) them for hundreds of years, but we haven't been scrutinizing them scientifically for that long.
  - runeks 12y ago
    > That said, can we really rule out the possibility that stainless or glass or silicone will have problems found in them? No. We can't completely rule out anything, if you ask me. But, glass and stainless steel have been used in sensitive environments (eg. chemical synthesis) for around a century, so we'd most likely have discovered if harmful substances leak from these materials. It would show up when a substance has been synthesized, and some sort of chromatography/mass spectrometry is performed on the resulting substance.
joeyspn 12y ago
So this is the world you want for your children?
- ZoFreX 12y ago
  Huh? What world? One where metal, glass, and plastic bottles are all available? Sure!

by ZoFreX 12y ago

iSnow 12y ago

Because I am a father?

danielweber 12y ago
From Freakonomics: No one is more susceptible to an expert’s fearmongering than a parent. Fear is in fact a major component of the act of parenting. A parent, after all, is the steward of another creature’s life, a creature who in the beginning is more helpless than the newborn of nearly any other species. This leads a lot of parents to spend a lot of their parenting energy simply being scared. The problem is that they are often scared of the wrong things. It’s not their fault, really. Separating facts from rumors is always hard work, especially for a busy parent. And the white noise generated by the experts — to say nothing of the pressure exerted by fellow parents — is so overwhelming that they can barely think for themselves. The facts they do manage to glean have usually been varnished or exaggerated or otherwise taken out of context to serve an agenda that isn’t their own.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  That's great and all until you consider that all parents are doing here is managing their buying decisions, so even the "threat" is low, so is the solution. I'm pretty sure that quote was aimed at parents worried about e.g. third party kidnappings (which are insanely rare). Or who consider inoculations to be "dangerous" (without examining the danger of the other side). Switching from one type of bottle to another may do "nothing" in the medium to long term, but it also costs the parent an inconsequential amount. As long as you aren't exchanging one somewhat unsafe bottle for a much more unsafe bottle (e.g. bottles made of lead) you're likely fine or breaking even.
ZoFreX 12y ago
I should have clarified I meant why are adults buying them for themselves (as many people are) - obviously it makes sense to avoid BPA for kids' bottles!

runeks 12y ago

A lack of evidence that a substance is harmful does not corroborate the claim that it is safe. Personally, I'd rather not buy any products containing these relatively unknown substances, and completely avoid the risk of them being harmful. I think people are generally hesitant when it comes to filling their bodies with unknown chemicals. Animals avoid this by instinct (rats only eat small amounts of something they've never tasted before, in order to test its reaction in the body), humans mostly use science to try to gauge which chemicals are detrimental to the body. Of course, as with all activities involving the human mind, sometimes it can get out of hand (eg. parents not vaccinating their child because they believe it causes autism). But, all in all, I think the fundamental resistance to filling our bodies with unknown substances is quite healthy.

ZoFreX 12y ago
Your reasoning seems sound to me. That said, can we really rule out the possibility that stainless or glass or silicone will have problems found in them? We may have been using (some of) them for hundreds of years, but we haven't been scrutinizing them scientifically for that long.
- runeks 12y ago
  > That said, can we really rule out the possibility that stainless or glass or silicone will have problems found in them? No. We can't completely rule out anything, if you ask me. But, glass and stainless steel have been used in sensitive environments (eg. chemical synthesis) for around a century, so we'd most likely have discovered if harmful substances leak from these materials. It would show up when a substance has been synthesized, and some sort of chromatography/mass spectrometry is performed on the resulting substance.

joeyspn 12y ago

So this is the world you want for your children?

ZoFreX 12y ago
Huh? What world? One where metal, glass, and plastic bottles are all available? Sure!