California fails to add BPA to toxics list

A California Environmental Protection Agency committee yesterday voted against placing bisphenol A on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause developmental or reproductive harm.

For the scientists, advocates and mothers who urged the committee to consider the substantial scientific evidence on BPA's effects, the decision won't derail their efforts.

“I’m disappointed the state let the opportunity to protect Californians from this terribly harmful chemical slip away,” said Nancy Bellen from Santa Rosa, Calif., who testified yesterday. “I’m heartened, though, that efforts to limit BPA exposure are moving forward nationally and internationally.”

The committee's decision is far from the final verdict on BPA and Proposition 65. The Natural Resources Defense Council  has already filed a legal petition with the California EPA asking for a second, more careful examination of the evidence:

Specifically, the U.S. National Toxicology Program concluded that there is widespread exposure to BPA and that is possible that BPA exposure affects human development or reproduction and found "clear evidence of adverse effects" in laboratory animals including fetal death, reduced growth, and delayed puberty from BPA. The committee ignored this important information, and we believe it needs to be considered and the public must be warned.

Committee members also made clear that yesterday's decision is not the last word on BPA, the Associated Press reports. Dr. Carl Keen pointed out that the committee initially denied secondhand smoke its place on the Proposition 65 list, only to reverse its decision a month later when new studies emerged.

Those advocating against BPA know too well the tendency to ignore substances later found to be harmful. As Rivka Gordon of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals  testified yesterday:

History and science make clear that substances once considered safe have later been shown to cause harm to pregnant women and their future children—thalidomide, alcohol and tobacco, mercury, DES, for example... it is the responsibility of our state regulatory agencies to protect people, especially women of childbearing age, children and adolescents from the risk of exposure to BPA by adding BPA to the list of restricted chemicals under Prop 65.