Congress to consider national BPA ban

Congressional leaders have introduced a bill to ban bisphenol A in all food and beverage containers, capping weeks of milestones for the movement to ban BPA.

The bill is a big step forward and goes further than some bans being proposed by counties, cities and states, many of which are limited to getting BPA out of products intended for children under the age of 4.

Bills were introduced in both the House and the Senate and are being sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Baby bottles have been epicenter of the BPA controversy. A lot of progress has already been made in getting BPA out of baby bottles.

Retailers like Babies “R” Us and Target no longer sell baby bottles containing BPA, six major baby bottle makers announced last week that they would no longer produce bottles with BPA and chemical manufacturer Sunoco announced last week that it would no longer sell BPA to manufacturers unless they could guarantee the chemical wasn’t going into products for babies and toddlers.

“The scientific evidence is mounting that BPA poses serious health risks, especially to children, and manufacturers and retailers have already started to pull items from their store shelves,” said Rep. Markey. “It is time for Congress to act quickly to ban this toxin from all food and beverage containers so that parents can feed their children without worrying that the food contains poisonous chemicals.”

All of this progress has been made with no help from the Food and Drug Administration, which still maintains that BPA exposure is safe after studying the issue by relying exclusively on scientific studies funded by the chemical industry.

But BPA affects the health of people of all ages and is found in a vast array of common products. Soda cans and food cans are lined with BPA. Polycarbonate water bottles are made of BPA. The toxic chemical is found in plastic food wrap and plastic food storage containers.

The law protects the possibility of stricter state action to regulate BPA in food and beverage containers, plus any additional state action to regulate BPA in other product categories. Many states are in the midst of advancing their own BPA bans.