Apple fans were shocked to learn that the device sold by the tech giant contains chemicals known to cause birth defects as well cancer.
The $100 Belkin BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Charging Power Bank has a warning on Apple’s website about the accessory, hidden under the hood, which is wanted by California regulators because of its dangerous content.
California has ordered that the product carry a warning warning consumers that this wireless charger ‘may expose you to chemicals that include Bisphenol A (BPA).’
BPA, a chemical used to strengthen plastics, is known as interfering with hormones in the bodyto cause please issues, sexual development and other problems.
The warning is due to California’s Proposition 65, which was passed in 1986, which has required companies to warn consumers of the dangers of BPA in their products.
The warning has left nervous Apple fans asking: ‘Should I be worried about this?’
Belkin’s Apple-approved wireless charger joins a growing group of products sold with these hormone-based products, including everything from water bottles and trash bags to tableware, carpets and more.
‘Holding the case with sweaty hands can cause panic,’ one consumer advocate warned a nervous Apple customer online.
Although Prop65 is the strongest law in the US, the legislation is a minor step compared to legislation in the US European Unionto BPA is banned in food packaging sold for use by minors – and a total ban that is now on the verge of controversy on the continent.
California regulators have ordered the product, the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Charging Power Bank (pictured), to carry a warning warning consumers that this wireless charger ‘may expose you to chemicals including Bisphenol A (BPA)’.
BPA, a chemical used to help harden plastics, is known to disrupt hormones in the body, causing problems with fertility, sexual development and other problems. The charger joins a growing number of consumer products that have been contaminated with BPA, including water bottles and garbage bags.
Education from at least 2018 using human skin cell cultures have shown that approximately 16-20 percent of BPA released from consumer products can be absorbed and found naturally in contact with human skin.
‘BPA can cause serious side effects after skin contact,’ according to the analysis of a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Other Apple materials, including plastic iPhone cases, have also involved consumers in similar warnings about BPA content.
‘Looking for a new iPhone case and found one I really like,’ one user said he told r/Chemistry forum on Reddit, ‘but by looking at the text at the bottom of the page it was discovered that the product contained Bisphenol A.’
‘Should I worry about this or will I get another problem without the medicine?’ the user asked.
Nervous shoppers are fiercely opposed to the issue, with some denying that California’s laws are excessive and others saying they don’t go far enough.
‘You can absorb BPA through your skin,’ one he said‘If you don’t know what you’re talking about, please don’t say anything.’
Apple’s product page for Belkin’s wireless pack, designed to work iPhones compatible with MagSafe, feature the device protected in a charcoal black plastic shell.
Two of the most widely used alternatives – bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) – are similar to the dangerous chemicals they were designed to replace.
Apple’s website for Belkin’s wireless charger pack, designed to work with MagSafe-compatible iPhones, shows the device protected in a charcoal black plastic shell (above)
The device, about four inches long and three inches wide, houses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that is used to extend iPhone battery life around the world.
Even companies that produce BPA alternatives – bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) – are similar to the dangerous chemicals that were created to replace them, according to scientists who investigated the issue.
‘The use of these bisphenols must be stopped because of the dangers they can cause to human and animal health,’ said biochemist José Villalaín, professor at the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche in Spain.
Villalaín published his findings in Journal of Xenobiotics this September.
Some Apple users and others debating how to deal with California’s warnings have been arguing about the gap between US laws on the drug and stricter protections for consumers and people overseas.
‘Most countries ban potential carcinogens but in America all you have to do is slap a cancer warning on it,’ Reddit the user, who goes by Old_Impact_3818, complained.
‘Most of the time it’s clearly written on the bottom of the box something goes in and you won’t even see it.’
