A long-awaited food safety reform bill could be shot down by the food industry and heavyweight business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, if an amendment is tacked on banning chemical bisphenol-A from food and beverage packaging and containers. You may remember bisphenol-A, commonly known as BPA, being in the news a while back when it was discovered that many popular items, including Nalgene brand water bottles and baby bottles, were made from plastic that leached the chemical.
The FDA has expressed some concerns about possible health effects related to BPA, but still insists more research is needed. In the meantime, scientists worldwide have connected BPA to number of health problems in rodents including “mammary and prostate cancer, genital defects in males, early onset of puberty in females, obesity, and even behavior problems such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.” These scientists are mostly concerned with BPA in products that have contact with food or beverage because there is a greater chance that the chemical will be absorbed into the body.
The decision of whether or not to leave the BPA banning amendment tacked onto the bill is in the hands of senators who must choose between the results of scientific studies and the lobbying of special-interest groups like the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Many companies and even some cities have already banned BPA from baby bottles, after recent studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and the FDA showed “concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland, in fetuses, infants and young children.”
You would think that the FDA and Congress would just want to ban BPA and avoid any possible harmful affects that the chemical could have on the American public. Clearly it isn’t a question of how easy it would be to switch to all BPA-free plastic, because many companies have already done so. As always it comes down to big business lobbyists dictating laws and policy, and usually money is worth more than public health. Hopefully on this matter, our public officials will do what’s best for the public and not for corporate interests.
