Maine Gov. Paul Lepage was correct about the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) when he recently stated that,
““Quite frankly, the science that I’m looking at says there is no [problem]. There hasn’t been any science that identifies that there is a problem.”
Unfortunately, he then went on to joke that,
“The only thing that I’ve heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.”
The incident gave the anti-BPA jihad-ers the opportunity to rant to the media, decrying Lepgae’s comments as,
“… shocking ignorance for the science and a callous disregard for children’s health…”
But a recent scientific evaluation by a World Health Organization expert panel confirmed that BPA is efficiently converted into estrogen-inactive metabolites and rapidly eliminated from the body after exposure, which indicates that BPA is unlikely to cause health effects.
In any event, Gov. LePage, it’s a lack of estrogen that would be associated with bearded ladies.
For more on BPA check out its entry in JunkScience.com’s Debunkosaurus.