Mary wrote:
>
> Hilary, thanks for the website on fresh salmon.
>
> What is bisphenol A? I'm giving larry canned salmon every day and he loves it!
>
 As far as I've been able to find out, food cans are usually coated on
the inside with a plastic or epoxy lacquer called NOGE (novolac glycidal
ether), BADGE (bisphenol diglycidal ether), or BFDGE (bisphenol F
diglycidal ether), and these plastics leach a chemical called
bisphenol-A. I've seen bisphenol-a referred to as a carcinogen, but most
of the references are to its known (since 1938) estrogenic activity.
It's one of the multitude of endocrine disruptors. Rats exposed to very
low levels in utero had a number of effects, including enlarged
prostates in males, and early puberty and higher bodyweight in females.
It also might interfere with the appropriately high levels of
testosterone in male human infants. It's also in polycarbonate baby
bottles (but I'll bet most people on this list probably feed their
babies the paleo way). There is a lot that is unknown about it. A
Canadian salmon organization (industry or government I can't recall) is
concerned because it's expected that levels in canned salmon would be
higher than levels in tuna. But on the other hand, in Europe the highest
levels were found in oil-canned sardines and anchovies, and it was
especially in the oil more than the fish. I figure that, since salmon
seems to be canned in water it shouldn't be as high, so if you rinse it
off (losing some of the excessive salt, too) and don't feed it to an
infant or a pregnant woman, it should be ok. I think the salmon is so
good for you that it's a good trade-off. It seems that the EU is going
to require that these coatings not be used starting in 2002, and the
industry will probably stop using them everywhere so they don't have to
mess with different kinds of cans for different markets.
 Hope this helps you sort it out,

Hilary McClure
Danville, VT