The message is clear: Americans are getting fed up with the use of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in a tremendous number of products in our lives. Pick up most newspapers, journals and magazines and you will see articles showing health effects and concern over BPA use.

Scientific studies have linked BPA to known health effects including impaired brain and reproductive development in unborn babies, miscarriage in pregnant women, diabetes, obesity and cancer. Populations that are particularly vulnerable to BPA are infants, childrena and pregnant women.

We are watching movement on BPA on many fronts. Here's a round up of BPA news this week:

Michigan is starting the new year with an aggressive agenda for protecting residents—adults and children alike—from toxic chemicals in the state. The toxics policy approach going into the 2010 legislative session will focus on 1) protecting children from toxic toys and 2) protecting all residents from toxic flame retardants.

The Children’s Safe Products Act

This law would require manufacturers to disclose the ingredients used in toys. As an editorial in The Oakland Press states,

“It sounds like a simple request. And while we’re not excited about more legislative regulations, these seem to be needed."

As we begin the new year, Safer States organizations in Maine are hard at work trying to keep the most toxic chemicals away from children, babies, and vulnerable populations. Gail Carlson, board member of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, wrote an editorial urging strong reform at the federal and state levels.

In 2008, Maine passed the “Kids-Safe Products Act,” one of the strongest toxic chemical laws in the nation. It requires that the state adopt a list of priority chemicals which are harmful to children, and manufacturers disclose those chemicals and move toward safer alternatives.

Quick: Picture Alaska in your mind’s eye. We’ll wait.

What did you think of? Photos of glistening streams, brown bears, leaping salmon, bald eagles?

Of course, those are the visions that many of us have because Alaska is a beautiful place. Yet, we are now aware that Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the circumpolar Arctic carry some of the highest levels of toxic chemicals on earth. Alaskan infants have some of the highest rates of birth defects in the nation. People also suffer from unusually high rates of health problems commonly associated with chemical exposure: cancers, diabetes, reproductive problems, thyroid disease, nervous and immune system disorders, and learning disabilities.

We at SAFER states are thrilled with two major developments on the phase out of toxic flame retardants. As a result of action in the SAFER states over the last several years and often mentioned here, the EPA has negotiated an agreement with three large manufacturers who have agreed to phase out decaBDE (deca) in the United States.

Additionally, Representative Chellie Pingree (D - ME) introduced a bill into Congress to ban deca to ensure the phase out takes place and that safe alternatives are used for flame retardants.

Deca is a flame retardant that is used in insulation, electronics and home furnishings and there is concern about its health effects in wildlife and humans. 

Officials from thirteen states joined forces today to dictate a set of eight guiding principles to be used for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA -- a law from 1976 which provides the EPA with the authority to regulate toxic chemicals.

The Obama Administration and Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, recently acknowledged that a major overhaul of this decades-old law is imperative for public safety.

There is concern, however, about the way that the Administration is setting out to reform TSCA. As Laurie Valeriano, policy director of the Washington Toxics Coalition wrote recently, "the changes are modeled after an approach that will result in endless government studies and gridlock when what we really need is action."

The Washington Toxics Coalition yesterday released a study which is being called the first of its kind. The project tested nine pregnant women from Washington, Oregon and California for levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies, and thus being exposed to their fetuses. This study was completed in collaboration with Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center and the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition.

by Laurie Valeriano, Policy Director for the Washington Toxics Coalition.

It was a moment I had been waiting for, for over a decade as an environmental health advocate -- the day that the federal government would finally acknowledge there is something wrong when lead winds up in toys, baby bottles are made from toxic plastic, and harmful flame retardants get into breast milk.

And that day finally came in September when the head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, admitted that there are serious problems with the federal toxics law that prevents her agency from being able to protect kids and their families from harmful chemicals in consumer products. Jackson said the Obama Administration supported changing the law governing toxic chemicals.

Consumer Reports Magazine released a report last week about bisphenol-A that is found in common canned products including soups, tuna and vegetables. The results showed that BPA exists in nearly every canned product, in amounts greater than outdated federal suggested guidelines.

News of the Consumer Reports study moved quickly through the food community, as it affects nearly household. According to the study, "Consumers eating just one serving of the canned vegetable soup we tested would get about double what the FDA now considers typical average dietary daily exposure."

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) released an important study last week. They studied the toxic chemicals found in 20 health professionals for a first-ever look into chemicals in their bodies. The sample study tested major chemical types in ten Safer States: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Main, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, New York and Washington.

Health care professionals are exposed to different, and more, chemicals due to their work environment, and the study confirmed this:

• Eighteen of the same chemicals were detected in every single participant,
• All twenty participants had at least five of the six major types of chemicals tested,