Does anyone know if Delrin contains BPA?
I believe it does not.
Although I haven’t found a specific citation stating that Delrin/acetyl plastic doesn’t contain bisphenol-A, there are many references that state that BPA is used in epoxies and polycarbonates, which are different families of plastics from Delrin. So far, I haven’t seen any reference to any other plastic than polycarbonate and epoxy containing BPA.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Thanks, Jerry.
What is BPA? Is it bad for you?
Bisphenol-A is a possible hormone disrupter, a manmade chemical that mimics the effects of estrogen.
The sources of exposure of greatest concern are the epoxy linings of tin cans (especially tin cans of infant formula) and polycarbonate nursing bottles. There’s greater concern about effects on infants because of possible developmental effects that would not be at issue in adults.
Best wishes,
Jerry
“Breast is best”. No excuses, now!
Thanks for the info guys. Reason I asked is I just ordered a McGee GLP in Delrin. I’d hate to think I was ordering a life shortening material. I think my drinking beer does enough damage without asking for additional trouble!
For infants or adults there Jem?
Let me tell you the story
Of a man named jloug
On a tragic and fateful day
He put a post on C&F,
Just to ask 'bout delrin
And something else called BPA
- Did the answer get learned?
No, it never got learned
And the stone remains unturn’d
He may wait forever
For some sort of answer
It’s the answer that never was learned.
Just kidding guys, great answers!
Ain’t that supposed to be sung to the tune of MTA as sung by the Kingston Trio?
Seems to me with the inherent stability of delrin, your potential for absorption of BPA by casual flute playing is extremely small. Plus, BPA is flushed out of your system by beer 
I’d think the risk of absorbing BPA just by playing a flute or whistle to be very slim to none…unless you lick and suck on your flute (then you have other issues we need to talk about in the PROCTology forum) or repeatedly heat/clean with harsh chemicals.
Eric
So you’re saying the estrogen effects of BPA is a good thing?
(Yes, the question is obviously a booby trap.)
Obviously a bad pun.
We periodically get these questions about chemicals on an item we handle for an hour or so per day. Meanwhile, we drink gallons of water, soda and other liquids from plastic bottles, store our leftovers in plastic tins, take home our left-over dinner in plastic “doggie bags,” eat sandwiches, candy bars, breakfast burritos and frozen vegetables stored for ages in plastic and on and on. Never mind all the chemicals loaded in those foods before they were ever wrapped in plastic. Anyone who worries about chemicals in their whistles either isn’t paying attention or has way, way too much time on their hands. Thank you for allowing me this rant. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.
The Walrus makes a good point.
I’d think an instrument maker would have more risk (if there is one) that a musician.
The Walrus is right. And not only that but there’s a story the news isn’t telling you, which is the accumulation in the environment of plastic particles. Plastic gets into the environment as litter, as industrial waste and when shipping containers fall off ships.
As it degrades (by the sun – photodegredation) the plastic pieces get smaller and enter the food chain at the bottom through filter-feeders in the ocean, concentrating the estrogenic effects up the chain. There’s an area in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas with 6 times more plastic by weight than biological life.
I’d worry more about the containers your food and other items are packaged in than your flute if I were you.
It wouldn’t be a problem if people would stop throwing inferior whistles overboard on cruise ships. 
The BBC and one of the science channels recently have covered this, in particular how it is killing seabirds that think the plastic is food and feed it to their chicks who’s stomachs become full of undigestable plastic and subsequently die. I suspect plastic is our biggest contamination issue, even beyond nuclear waste.
KAC
Oh, it’s much worse than that, folks. BPA is not good.
I, too, cannot find any web resources citing Delrin as containing it, however.
Here is what my Chemistry Ph.D. high school AP Chem teacher sister-in-law said when I followed up with “why is BPA bad?” to her statement that they’d just finished going over a unit on it in her AP Chem class.
Paraphrasing:
Normal molecules like this consist of benzine rings joined at angles to each other - thus they take up larger 3-D space. The benzine rings in BPA join flat, or sharing the same horizon, so to speak. In addition, the molecule is very small. This means (again, from her) they can get inside things easily, like, oh, DNA.
In addition, check these out:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129031013
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/hand-sanitizer-may-increase-bpa-absorption/
Wow! Decade Old Thread COMES ALIVE like Peter Frampton!
Delrin is VERY inert. It’s used widely in medical devices and food industry machinery. It’s FDA certified as food safe so I wouldn’t worry about its use in a whistle. I checked into this before I started using a generic version of the polymer for my whistle fipples.