BPA Free is a new running Greenthinkers feature where we discuss BPA, link to BPA-related pieces in the news, and also discuss and review all the BPA-free products you can handle. Enjoy your new BPA-free life.

To begin, what is BPA? To start, let’s get scientific: Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is an organic compound with two phenol functional groups. It is a difunctional building block of several important polymers and polymer additives. With an annual production of approximately 3 million tonnes, it is an important monomer in the production of polycarbonate. Now let’s get real: Bisphenol-A is a hormone-disrupting chemical considered to be potentially harmful to human health and the environment. It has been known that scratched and worn polycarbonate feeding bottles will leach this chemical into liquids.

Is this new? All in all, BPA has been suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s though it only really started to grab headlines this year when several governments issued reports questioning its safety and some retailers even started to pull products made from it off their shelves.

But how harmful can this really be? While the plastics industry insists BPA is harmless, recent reports suggest it has an estrogen-mimicking effect that interferes with hormone levels and cell signaling systems. Long-term exposure may put you at risk for a gamut of health hazards including breast cancer and uterine fibroids, in women, and prostate cancer and decreased sperm counts in men. Even scarier? Infants and children could face behavioral problems such as hyperactivity or an early onset of puberty.

Scared yet? No need. Over the coming weeks and months, Greenthinkers will be bringing you lots of BPA news, views and product reviews. We hope you enjoy it.

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Aster Vesara’s bamboo bracelets are made from bamboo harvested in the rainforests of Ecuador. Toasted to a warm coffee colour and then sanded to a glowing polish, they are beautiful pieces. Click on the link to see the photos.

Check this out. It’s a series of clocks in a classic style with a slate-like surface, made from recycled coffee cups. Very cool. Yours from EcoCentric.

We’ve written a lot about environmentally-conscious fashion over these past years. So much so that we were recently called ‘a make or break blog in the world of eco-fashion’*. This week, how about some hot bamboo fashions. First up, Tikuna Boots from Hush Puppies.

As the marketing-speak notes, these boots combine earth-friendly, sustainable materials like hemp, jute, bamboo, natural rubber and recycled foam with protective manufacturing practices and recycled packaging. Sounds good to us!

• Not true. At all.

As we know, one industry that has a great impact on the environment and is in dire need of “greening up” is the travel industry. In response to this need, iStayGreen.org was created.

iStayGreen is a social networking site for the Green Travel Community. Members write reviews on the properties they stay at based on their “Green” initiatives, thus creating an eco-accountability system amongst hoteliers. The site currently features over 3,000 Green Eco-Leaf Rated properties and is growing daily.

Good for them.

Did you know most organic milk stays fresher longer? We didn’t either. Consumerist uncovered this gem for us.

Much of organic milk is “ultra-pasteurized.” This means the pasteurization process occurs at a higher temperature than just regular pasteurization. More bacteria get killed, and so it stays fresh for longer. Not all organic milk is ultra-pasteurized, and some regular milk is, so be sure to look for milk that says “ultra-pasteurized.”

Confused?

It was fun to get back in the swing of things around these here Greenthinker parts. And by swing, we mean eat, learn, get awestruck, recycle and go for a walk.

As we look back we must also look forward. Next week we’re thinking of looking at finally launching our much-discussed feature on living a BPA-free life. And we’ll discuss some hot new bamboo fashions. And hey, we’ll also bring you all the latest in product reviews, news and whatever else comes up. See you then!

We’ve seen bags made of bags but this is new - sandals made of bags! Seen on the Hunger Site, it’s the Bazura Bag Sandals.

Made of discarded juice drink boxes, these are for sure among the most unique uses of post-consumer materials we’ve seen of late. Made by a women’s cooperative in the Philippines using cleaned, recycled foil juice packs. Naturally (or, well, artificially) indestructible.

Get ready for Baobab fever. And we’re not talking about these guys. No, baobab is the newest super fruit to hit our shores. Coffee berry, acai and goji are old news.

Billed as the king of the superfruits, here are its stats…

• More than 10 times the antioxidant level of oranges. And six times more vitamin C.

• More than twice the calcium level of milk.

• Soluble fibre in fruit pulp has pre-biotic qualities and stimulates good bacteria in the gut.

• High in potassium, important for brain, nerve and muscle function. And phosphorus, which helps bones.

Enjoy.

We like the name and also the idea. Developed by Yangaroo, a new system called DMDS allows record labels to send music digitally and securely to radio station programmers and DJs, eliminating the need to ship CDs.

Yangaroo provides a digital delivery system called DMDS that music labels use to deliver their songs directly to radio stations. Interesting enough, but here’s what’s green about it. According to the company, making, printing, packaging and shipping CD via truck and plane consumes 0.7 pounds of fossil fuel. Digital delivery does away with that demand. More than 600 Canadian radio stations use the service and the Canadian company is marching into the U.S.

Yangaroo!

This time, it’s Lisa Bonet. You remember Lisa Bonet, right? Right?

Designed by Adin Mumma, this very cool Pulp Bulletin Board is made from stacked reprocessed paper with a recyclable paperboard frame. Umbra!

As we approach the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there will be a lot of stories about China and its environment. Let’s veer away from that for a second and enjoy the new Aquatics Centre they have built, next door to the iconic bird’s nest Olympic Stadium.

Working with the engineering firm Arup, which also collaborated on the Bird’s Nest, PTW developed cladding made of variously sized cells of ETFE, or ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, a translucent plastic somewhat similar to Teflon. Among architects, ETFE is the material of the moment—Herzog and de Meuron used it for the façade of their Munich stadium and for the roof of the Bird’s Nest—and it has many practical virtues. It weighs only one per cent as much as glass, transmits light more effectively, and is a better insulator, resulting in a thirty-per-cent saving in energy costs.

Cool stuff.

Photo Credit: BBC News.