FDA defending BPA in plastics, and California moves closer to banning BPA--

In various news clips I have learned that the FDA has recently announced that it there is no reason that parents should stop using BPA containing plastic with their children. Hmmmm- why am I not comforted?

According to a NewsInferno article, "The FDA sees no reason to advise consumers to stop using products made with the controversial chemical, which is found in many plastic items. Norris Alderson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for science said although the FDA is reviewing concerns about bisphenol A, or BPA, “a large body of available evidence” indicates products such as liquid or food containers made with BPA are safe. In testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Alderson defended the FDA’s reliance on two industry-funded studies in making this determination."

This of course, is in reference to the two studies funded by the BPA chemical manufacturers, and is under investigation by a House Committee. No surprise, they found the use of BPA to be completely safe. I wrote about this situation in this recent post.

These studies are in complete opposition to many others not funded by the industry that claim that low levels of BPA, "have been found to cause changes in behavior; in the brain, prostate gland, and mammary gland; and the age at which girls enter puberty. In the lab, BPA is linked to sex-hormone-imbalances, including breast and prostate cancer, early puberty, miscarriage, low sperm count, and immune-system changes. The National Toxicology Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction found BPA risk and exposure causes neural and behavioral effects in children, becoming the first federal agency to accept such fears. A group of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the FDA, and the Institutes of Health (NIH) warned that very low doses of BPA cause profound effects on laboratory animals, particularly during pregnancy and infancy and that BPA can permanently rewire genetic programming before birth. The federal National Toxicology Program said experiments on rats found precancerous tumors, urinary tract problems, and early puberty when animals were fed or injected with low BPA doses."

This is not new information, I have been writing about BPA in products all year, but it does bear repeating. This is not going away until we have a national ban.

Apparently, Senators John Kerry and Charles Schumer agree. The Senate has passed a bill to ban phthalates, and another one to ban BPA and require the CDC to study BPA effects in humans.

California is moving closer to becoming the first state in the U.S. to ban the use of BPA in plastic. A bill to do so has passed the Senate and is now being considered by the State Assembly.