Is BPA Receipt Paper a Hazard to Health?

Published: May 16, 2011, By Yolanda Simonsis

Doesn’t it seem like the converting industry is under frequent consumer attack for manufacturing one product or another? If it’s not for the evils of plastic bags, then the industry is under attack for packaging in general. Bad plastic bags! Bad packaging!

So I received a press release this morning that’s headlined, “Investors Withdraw Shareholder Resolution Against Yum! Brands After Major Fast-Food Operator Transitions Away from Toxic BPA Receipt Paper.” Glenn Turner of Ripple Strategies writes:

Two major companies–Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell) and Whole Foods–are part of a growing industry trend transitioning away from cash register receipt paper made with the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA).

BPA has made headlines recently as scientists, health experts, and consumers press for a federal ban on food packaging made with the endocrine disruptive chemical that acts like a synthetic estrogen, shown to leach readily into infant formula, beverages, and canned food. Beverage giant Coca-Cola recently received attention for refusing to address investor concern on this issue. BPA exposure has been linked to breast and prostate cancer, infertility, learning disabilities, and a host of other health risks.

Damn, I’ve had two kinds of cancer already, and I sure as hell don’t want anymore! But my mother-in-law (Gold bless her soul) always told me, “There are three sides to every story.”

I’m no scientist, so I ask in true radio personality Paul Harvey fashion: What are the other two side sides of the story? Is this bisphenol A (BPA) stuff being exaggerated?