The Red, White, and Green

The California Senate narrowly passed Bill 797 yesterday, which would prohibit the use of toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from baby bottles, sippy cups, and other food containers for children under the age of 3. The bill now moves to the State Assembly for a vote, where it is expected to face serious opposition from chemical and food industry lobbyists. Just how serious is the opposition? Well, after doing a Google search yesterday evening to determine the status of the vote, this little nugget of press release propaganda was at the top of the results list, courtesy of the American Chemistry Council:

ARLINGTON, Va., June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today the California Senate voted to needlessly restrict consumer products deemed to be safe by scientific experts worldwide. Sadly, SB 797 is not based on science and will not improve public health.

Eleven regulatory bodies around the world have recently assessed the science on bisphenol A (BPA) and uniformly determined that BPA is safe for use in food contact products, including the products that would be banned by SB 797. Among others, these include the European Union, European Food Safety Authority, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Danish Environmental Protection Agency, French Food Safety Authority, and the Swiss Office for Public Health.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated: “With regard to BPA generally, based on all available evidence, the consensus of regulatory agencies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan is that the current levels of exposure to BPA through food packaging do not pose an immediate health risk to the general population, including infants and young children.”

By failing to consider the conclusions of these recent assessments, it is apparent that elected officials have bowed to pressure from vocal special interest groups. If this bill becomes law, it will do nothing to enhance product safety; it will, however, result in reduced product choice for consumers and needlessly more expensive food products.

Assessing chemical and product safety requires deep scientific expertise and rigorous analysis. For this reason, the same California Legislature last year adopted what may be the world’s most comprehensive chemical management regulatory program for consumer products. If there is a need for further scientific review of BPA in California, the open and transparent process under this “Green Chemistry” initiative will provide what is needed to protect the health of all Californians. Legislative end-runs around the scientific process are not the way to achieve this goal.

I mean, could they be any more obvious? Thanks for the unbiased insight, American Chemistry Council. Ah, those “vocal special interest groups”: You parents with young children who are concerned about the more than 100 peer-reviewed studies that have found BPA to be toxic at low doses (or last month’s Harvard/CDC study). You should be ashamed of yourselves for “needlessly restricting” consumer choice!

–Jennifer Grayson

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