Connecticut: Doctor says state should shield kids from BPA

In an opinion piece in the Hartford Courant, Dr. Carl Baum urged Connecticut's legislature and Governor to "write children a prescription for prevention to chemical exposure."

A bill that would prohibit the use of BPA in food containers, such as baby bottles and can liners, along with other children's products, is pending in the state legislature.

Writing just after the FDA announced it would continue to study bisphenol A (BPA) rather than take regulatory action, Dr. Baum wrote that in the case of BPA, he found "even the possibility of risk to children too great to ignore."

Dr. Baum, a pediatrician and medical toxicologist at Yale-New Haven's Children's Hospital, is a member of the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut's Technical Advisory Council.  He wrote:

As a pediatrician and medical toxicologist, I am particularly concerned about the relatively high levels of BPA found in infants and young children, as they cannot metabolize BPA as effectively as adults. Infant formula, which can become contaminated with BPA that leaches from the lining of the can, is often put in a baby bottle that leaches additional amounts of BPA. In addition, regulators and lawmakers should consider exposures to fetuses, who are exposed to BPA via the placenta.

BPA is by no means the only chemical of concern found in millions of Americans, but it has gained wide attention because exposure may be preventable: There are safer materials available, including glass baby bottles and stainless steel water bottles.