Is the plastics industry losing faith in the FDA?

Two commentaries ask whether recent market trends of industries substituting safer chemicals for bisphenol A (BPA) can be taken as a sign that the plastics industry doesn’t trust the FDA’s determination that BPA is safe.

Rich Liroff (pictured), director of the Investor Environmental Health Network, writes that there is a “growing public sense that government health and safety agencies have been compromised by anti-science, anti-regulatory interests and cannot be trusted“ in a GreenBiz.com post.

Liroff points to the high-profile stories about product safety from the last week, including Sunoco’s decision not to sell BPA to customers for use in children’s products, and finds three challenges for industry.

First, government agencies “aren’t trusted by many consumers.”

Second, “consumer and environmental health advocates are filling in the gaps left by government inaction.”  Testing performed by non-profit health advocates, including “No More Toxic Tub,” which tested for toxic ingredients in children’s shampoos and lotions, are providing the kind of information people used to trust the government to provide.  Liroff rightly points out the importance of quality investigative journalism, particularly from the reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who have won three awards for their groundbreaking reporting on BPA.

Third, “smart” companies believe “the better competitive position to adopt is to side with their customers lacking faith in regulators' judgments and to work with their supply chain to eliminate chemicals of concern.”

The writers at OMB Watch agree that the government, specifically the US Food and Drug Administration, is not doing enough to address the “growing consumer concern” over BPA’s safety, writing it "seems as though just about everyone is taking action to limit the use of the ubiquitous chemical bisphenol-A – that is, everyone but the FDA.”

OMB Watch cites the action to ban BPA in Suffolk County and the decision by baby bottle manufacturers to voluntarily stop using BPA in their products  -- without a government-issued regulation -- as watershed events for industry and consumers. 

These acts do more than show the power of market forces to change the way products are made.  OMB Watch argues that “it also illustrates to extent to which businesses, states, and consumers distrust the FDA.”

Even though FDA says BPA is safe, few are taking the agency at its word. More importantly, the high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks of the last few years have left most wary of FDA’s ability to ensure the safety of products once they enter the stream of commerce….It seems industry, like consumers, is rapidly losing faith in the FDA.”

Be sure to sign the petition to Congress to support a ban on BPA in children's products.