States hope to join Minnesota in banning BPA

As legislative sessions in some states come to a close, the effort to pass bans on bispehnol A (BPA) has intensified. The chemical industry seems to be pulling out all the stops to block passage of the remaining bills.

On the heels Minnesota's landmark victory, becoming the first state to ban BPA, states and cities including California, Connecticut, New York, and Chicago are hoping to carry this important health initiative across the country.

(Not to mention that nurseries in Paris may go BPA free!)

Here is where several proposed BPA bans stand from California to New York:

Connecticut:

Connecticut’s BPA ban is the toughest, according to Sarah Uhl of the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut. The ban prohibits BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, as well as reusable food and beverage containers. Food containers – including cans – would have to have a warning label alerting consumers that the product is lined with BPA. The bill passed the House by a huge margin last month – 128 to 14 -- but the bill has not yet been considered by the Senate.

Connecticut’s BPA ban was the subject of a New York Times article on May 6, which included this quote from Alex Bergstein, who lives in Greenwich:

As a parent I say, if we even suspect there is a risk to our children, and it’s not necessary to our existence, let’s get rid of it and use a safe substitute,” said Alex Bergstein, 42, a lawyer whose children are 11, 9 and 5.

Uhl reports that the chemical industry is working to delay consideration of the bill in the Senate. The strategy buys them time to win over enough votes in that Chamber to defeat the bill or to amend the legislation so it will have to go back to the House for further consideration. One more sign that the BPA industry is writing big checks to win is that they've hired the former Speaker of the House to help them kill the legislation. Connecticut’s legislative session ends June 3. 

New York:

New York’s BPA ban passed through the Assembly on May 5, as part of its Earth Day legislative package. The JustGreen Partnership reports that the BPA ban was just one in a wave of other important pieces of legislation also passed that day. There are seven weeks left in New York’s legislative session. To read more about New York State’s BPA ban, check out the blog post by JustGreen.

In other New York news, Schenectady County has announced that it will consider a resolution to ban BPA in any children’s beverage products sold in that county, a proposal similar to the one passed by Suffolk County last month.  A hearing on the resolution will be held on May 14.

Chicago:

The folks at Environment Illinois report that the Chicago City Council is likely to pass BPA legislation modeled on Suffolk County's ban.  A vote is scheduled for Wednesday, May 13. A proposed state ban was defeated by two votes last month. 
 

California:

Fran Pavley, sponsor of California’s BPA ban, wrote a scathing critique of the chemical industry in an oped published in Capitol Weekly. She tells it like it is:

Well over 100 independent academic and government peer-reviewed studies have linked BPA to a host of problems, including brain and developmental damage, breast and prostrate cancer, early puberty, obesity, infertility, miscarriage and hyperactivity. Young children and babies are particularly vulnerable because their body systems are still developing.

Still, the chemical industry remains in denial. It has employed more than a dozen lobbyists to kill my bill.  Lobbyists for popular formula brands are roaming the halls of the Capitol, telling my colleagues that alternative products aren’t available, and a ban on BPA could cause a formula shortage. Yet at the same time, these companies are marketing a variety of formula and food containers to parents as “BPA free.”

And there's still news coming from Washington State.  Wal-Mart’s complicity in defeating the Washington State BPA ban last week received new attention thanks to a must-read eye-popping post on The Greenwash Brigade.

Stay tuned to SaferStates.org for more on the effort to ban BPA.