BPA Studies To Continue Under FDA: Agency Faulted For Ignoring Data On Plastics' Health Risks

washingtonpost.com:

The Food and Drug Administration, criticized by its own scientific advisers for ignoring available data about health risks posed by a chemical found in everyday plastic, said yesterday it has no plans to amend its position on the substance but will continue to study it.

The agency has been reviewing its risk assessments for bisphenol A, a chemical used to harden plastic that is found in a wide variety of products, from baby bottles to compact discs to the lining of canned goods. The chemical, commonly called BPA, mimics estrogen and may disrupt the body's carefully calibrated endocrine system.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[Mnemanth]

Ah, the FDA. The best beaurocracy money can buy. "We're the FDA! We'll spend decades studying a plastic bottle, then spend decades more studying the study, but... Our friends at Pharmacy Corp have a new pill to push? Instant "OK"!"

[BinIndy]

Yeah....great idea, trust the FDA, there're always on top of their business. Might as well have my kids do the study....it'd be more accurate and more timely.

[fiorastar]

This may be part of why so many of the 9-10 year olds in my daughter's 4th grade class are already getting their menstrual cycles. There are, of course, natural differences in hormonal maturity, but it is very strange to see girls this young--some of them still believing in Santa Claus--wearing bras, having hormonal hissy fits, and getting their period while others look and act like the little girls they still are.
Invariably, these girls are eating hormone laden foods and grew up with lots of plastics in the house, and were bottle fed from plastic bottles as babies, and were wrapped in plastic-covered, bleach filled, single use diapers.
My own daughters were breastfed, we used cloth diapers, and I searched the Goodwills for used glass baby bottles to avoid the plastic that just didn't seem right at the time. We have always had hormone-free dairy and meat products. This was because my mother had breast cancer and I have three daughters, so I wanted to do everything possible to help mitigate the risk. Now I'm glad I did. It seems the effects come on much sooner than just a cancer risk.

[beherenowbud]

If BPA is on the lining of cans then it should be labeled as such so that WE KNOW.

We always have the right to buy out of glass jars or make the tomato sauce, or whatever, out of FRESH INGREDIENTS.

[ZellaBee]

FDA: Let's study and study some more, while people are getting ill, then after 10 more years and the kids are all either ill or gone, we'll do another study that shows we were wrong. Oops!

[asus389]

So.. am I missing something here? Wouldn't the correct position to take be to reverse their previous position that it was safe until a time which they can definitively prove it *is safe*? AKA the precautionary principle? Something that potentially is bad for you shouldn't be marked as "safe until proven otherwise", it should be marked "bad until proven otherwise". Way to go FDA...

They made the same mistake with mercury in dental fillings. "We'll say its safe until someone proves its not." HELLO wake up, its *mercury* we are talking about. Its by definition not safe... idiots.

[Beowolf741]

Part of the downfall of Rome I heard was lead plumbing for drinking water. It tended to make emperors nut jobs. For us it will be our better living through chemistry we were never designed to deal with when we evolved on the african savanna. Plus a whole host of things like refined sugar etc.

[research]

What, Don't you guy want double D boobs??

[JustAHumanOnEarth]

The FDA will continue to "study" BPA until the chemical companies tell them otherwise.

[Clairvaux]

Not being able to rely on the FDA to protect us sucks big time.

[JuniorNorman]

LEGALIZE HEMP, We can make clean renewable plastic from it.

What the Chemical Industry Doesn't Want You to Know about Everyday Products
' The global chemical industry annually produces about 6 billion pounds of bisphenol A (BPA), an integral component of a vast array of plastic products, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods is probably incalculable. Environmental Working Group studies have found BPA in more than half the canned foods and beverages sampled from supermarkets across the U.S. Soon after scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons found the first hard evidence that miniscule amounts of BPA caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice, a scientist from Dow Chemical Company showed up at the Missouri lab. He disputed the data and declared, as Vom Saal recalls, "We want you to know how distressed we are by your research." "It was not a subtle threat," Vom Saal says. "It was really, really clear, and we ended up saying, threatening us is really not a good idea."

[Exusian]

Canada has already banned bottles containing BPA for liquids for human consumption.

But now Canada is the leading nation dragging its feet on taking action to fight AGW.

Win one, lose one.