No more BPA in U.S. baby bottles
Parents rejoice: Soon you will no longer have to look for the BPA-free label when you shop for baby bottles. The six largest manufacturers of baby bottles voluntarily agreed to stop using bisphenol A, according to a story in the Washington Post.
The manufacturers declared their intentions after Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, joined by the attorneys general in Connecticut and New Jersey, wrote to the bottle makers and asked them to voluntarily stop using the chemical.
"The evidence seems too clear and emphatic and unequivocal to say we should simply permit this stuff to go into children on a massive scale," Blumenthal said yesterday. "And there's no reason for it, because there are substitutes available."
Bye, bye, BPA!
Bye, bye, BPA!
Bisphenol A, commonly called BPA, has been in commercial use since the 1950s and is found in everything from plastic beverage containers to compact discs. It is ubiquitous: A recent federal study estimated that the chemical is found in the urine of 93 percent of the U.S. population. (I wonder what those 7 percent are doing that everyone else isn’t?)
The chemical mimics the hormone estrogen and may disrupt the body’s endocrine system. Public health advocates say it poses a particular danger to fetuses, infants, and children because BPA can interfere with cell function at a point when their bodies are still developing.
What’s more, over the past 10 years, more than 130 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, and other disorders. In September, the study of BPA in humans found adults with higher levels of bisphenol A had elevated rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities.
Despite all of this, the FDA has maintained that BPA is safe, relying largely on two studies that were funded by the chemical industry. Though the agency is revisiting its position.
So if the FDA says it’s OK, why are the big companies volunteering to go BPA free? “Consumer concern about the chemical has placed increasing pressure on manufacturers and retailers. Late last year, Babies R Us and other major retailers told suppliers they would no longer stock baby bottles made with BPA,” according to the Post.
"We made a business decision to move out of BPA," Shannon Jenest of Philips Avent, which is number one in U.S. dollar sales of baby bottles, told the Post.
Philips Avent stopped selling baby products with BPA on Dec. 31 in North America but continues to market them overseas, she said. "We felt like we had hit a tipping point with our consumers and with our retailers," Jenest said. "Babies R Us was banning it, Target was going to, CVS was going to, and so the distribution channels were lessening and lessening."