Can Plants Absorb BPA?
Can plants absorb BPA? You may be surprised to find that they can. After all, it’s been more than a decade since the scare about dangerous chemicals took hold and research indicated that many common items were making their way into our foods. There are some things that stay the same, though, including phthalates, BPA and Teflon. Until you find out how they may impact your health, you might want to consider container gardening.
A container garden may seem like a complicated thing to figure out, but you need only look at our water to see how simple it can be. Water is everywhere and it carries with it many pollutants, such as lead and other metals. While we may not be able to remove some of these through drinking, we can do our part by filtering our own water. We do this by placing water bottles on kitchen countertops or under our sinks. Though we may not drink the water directly from a bottle, we can take care to filter the air around it.
As water passes through a plant, it will eventually become contaminated. Just as the water inside a bottled bottle contains tiny particles of plastic, the water inside of a container is made up of the same material – tiny particles of plastic. It would be really hard for us to ingest any of this, but when a plant absorbs the plastic, it absorbs the trace amounts that remain. What does this mean for us? It means that even if you avoid putting BPA based plastics in your garbage, you may be doing harm to the planet by allowing plastics to seep into the soil where plants grow.
Can plants absorb BPA? The answer depends upon the type of plant – and, to a lesser extent, the type of soil in which the plant grows. BPA is a natural occurrence in nature, so it would be very difficult to find a plant or a type of soil that could absorb it. There are a few exceptions to this rule, however. Saw palmetto and walnut are two examples of plants that are particularly well-known for their high concentrations of BPA.
Can plants absorb BPA? If the concentration of BPA in a plant happens to be higher than 0.2%, that plant will probably absorb some of the BPA and more of the non-BPA as well. However, since the concentration levels of BPA and other chemicals in most plants are very low, we can pretty much rely on fruits and vegetables to make sure that we are eating a safe diet.
Can plants absorb BPA? Once the plant absorbs BPA, it does absorb some of the other chemicals that are present as well. This is why soft drinks are so bad for you – because they usually have traces of other chemicals that are also bad for you. Even distilled waters are not free of chemicals. Water is processed before it gets to your tap. In a lot of cases, the source of the water that makes it to your tap is a treatment facility that filters out the chemicals before they are sent to you.
Can plants absorb BPA? Yes, – but only in a relatively small amount. You would have to drink gallons upon gallons of water, or use a filter that was designed specifically to remove chemicals like BPA. Otherwise, most plants would die.
Can plants absorb BPA? The short answer is – yes, they can absorb some of the chemicals that are found in plastics, but there is no reason to believe that there is any serious health risk to consuming them. The long answer is – it depends.