|
Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics and epoxy resins.
It is in baby bottles. I learned this and the following from the New
York Times.
The US Food and Drug Administration ruled in
August that the small amounts of BPA leaching out of containers and
into food or baby’s milk pose no dangers. But just last Wednesday
the US government’s National Toxicology Program said its research
on BPA raised some concern. The NTP is the US federal agency that
does toxicological research. Its concern is on the possible effects
of BPA on fetal brain development and on babies and young children.
The Yale School of Medicine recently released
even more scary findings. Yale researchers saw that on monkeys BPA
“causes the loss of connections between brain cells.” The
disconnection in turn causes memory problems, learning disabilities
and depression.
The Yale researchers are not saying the very
same things that BPA does to primates and other animals also happen
to humans.
But Yale School of Medicine’s associate
director of the toxicology program, John Bucher, said“We have
concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development
cannot be dismissed.”
What should parents do, then?
Just like the carcinogenic effects of some
contraceptives or the abortive function that some contraceptives do
to fetuses, parents should err on the side of caution. Don’t use
baby bottles that have BPA.
Practical tips from toxicologists: (1) Look at
the bottom of plastic containers. If you see the number 7, it most
likely means the plastic material contains BPA. (2) Use glass or
porcelain when you microwave or make sure the plastic container you
intend to use has no BPA. (3) Don’t feed your baby canned goods
using plastic linings. This lining often has BPA. (4) Look for BPA-free
baby bottles and other baby products—or for that matter anything
that you might also use.
There is now a move in some US Congress
committees and in state legislatures to ban BPA in baby bottles or
in anything that touches food whether for babies or adults.
I’m sharing this news because we should pay
more living attention to our babies and young people now. Who knows,
Congressman Edcel Lagman’s Reproductive Health Bill might become
law and then—like Japan, Russia, Korea, Western Europe and
Singapore—we won’t have too many babies to protect anymore.
___
Gov. Sarah Palin lives her faith
From a New York Times article datelined Wasilla,
Alaska, titled “In Palin’s Life and Politics, Goal to Follow
God’s Will” by Kirk Johnson and Kim Severson (September 5,
2008), one learns:
Shortly after taking office as governor in 2006,
Sarah Palin sent an e-mail message to Paul E. Riley, her former
pastor in the Assembly of God Church, which her family began
attending when she was a youth. She needed spiritual advice in how
to do her new job.
Riley said, “She asked for a Biblical example
of people who were and what was the secret of their leadership,”
Mr. Riley said.
He advised her to reread the Story of Esther in
the Old Testament: how “the beauty queen became a real one” and
influenced her husband to stop the slaughter of the Jews and instead
do in their enemies. “When Esther is called to serve, God grants
her a strength she never knew she had.”
“Mr. Riley said he thought Ms. Palin had lived
out the advice as governor, and would now do so again as the
Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee. God has given her
the opportunity to serve. And God has given her the strength to
carry out her goals.”
Writers Johnson and Severson interviewed pastors
who know Sarah Palin, friends who “have worshipped with her” and
they “point to a firm conclusion: her foundation and source of
guidance is the Bible, and with it has come a conviction to be
God’s servant.”
They also offer quotations from Gov. Palin’s
talk to young graduates of a ministry program. Quotes show how
earnestly she believes in God and believes that He sends us to do
His will and the work He wants done.
She also worries about other people, politicians
especially—if these are doing God’s will or that of some other.
Other quotations speak of Gov. Palin’s strong
belief in the power of prayer.
Johnson and Severson writes that “Maria
Comella, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Ms. Palin
had been baptized Roman Catholic as an infant, but declined to
comment further.” Comella said, “We’re not going to get into
discussing her religion.”
rqb@manilatimes.net
rq_bas@yahoo.com
|
