While We Wait For Action, Federal Official Says Best To Avoid BPA
We had high hopes that the US Food and Drug Administration would take action on bisphenol A (BPA) in time for the holidays, but that’s one gift that probably won’t show up in our stockings. Even though consumers may end up empty-handed this season, a high-ranking federal scientist is convinced enough to warn her family to avoid the chemical.
We had high hopes that the US Food and Drug Administration would take action on bisphenol A (BPA) in time for the holidays, but that’s one gift that probably won’t show up in our stockings.
Even though consumers may end up empty-handed this season, a high-ranking federal scientist is convinced enough to warn her family to avoid the chemical. In a recent interview, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, Linda Birnbaum, said scientific evidence doesn’t support assertions that BPA is safe.
Asked if consumers should be worried about BPA, Birnbaum said, "Absolutely."
Birnbaum’s statements come on the heels of the FDA’s decision to further delay its determination on whether it’s okay for BPA to be used in food containers. The FDA says it needs more time to review the science.
Let’s hope we can take the agency’s leaders at their word. If they delve into the latest research on BPA, they’ll find new studies linking BPA to sexual dysfunction and lower sperm counts, miscarriages, increased aggression in girls, and intestinal problems.
This new research adds to the more than 200 independent studies linking BPA exposure to health problems and WTC’s own study Earliest Exposures showing babies are exposed to the chemical before they are even born.
As the feds drag their feet, the Washington State legislature has the opportunity to ban the chemical in items where children have the most exposure—baby bottles, sippy cups, infant formula cans, and baby food jars. By passing the Safe Baby Bottle Act in the upcoming legislative session, Washington would join Connecticut and Minnesota as states who have said, “NO WAY!” to BPA.
We may end the year still waiting for federal action, but our state has the chance in 2010 to once again show leadership in protecting health—because all families, not just the families of federal scientists, deserve protection from BPA.
UPDATE: 
It's
January 4, 2010, and the FDA has missed their third deadline for taking
action on BPA. Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story.
