December 1, 2009
A campaign to ban the use of polycarbonate baby bottles has been started by the action group Breast Cancer UK. In its
No More BPA Report the group quotes scientific studies on the effects of bisphenol A (BPA) – a major constituent of polycarbonate – as a hormone disrupter, and links with breast cancer and other chronic health conditions. It reports studies that show that babies are more susceptible to the effects of BPA than adults, and refers to research in the USA that showed that BPA can leach from polycarbonate babies bottles when heated.
Breast Cancer UK also reports events in the USA and Canada where manufacturers have voluntarily withdrawn polycarbonate baby bottles from sale, some US states have passed legislation which will ban the sale of polycarbonate baby bottles, and Canada is in the process of banning them.
The report mentions moves in Denmark where the parliament has passed a non-binding resolution to end the use of BPA in babies' bottles. And for the UK it gives two paragraphs to correspondence from Minister of State for Health Dawn Primarolo earlier this year saying that the Food Standards Authority and European Food Safety Authority saw no risk to health from BPA, and substantially more space to quoting "independent scientists" who disagreed.
In its conclusion and recommendations Breast Cancer UK says that "the body of scientific evidence demonstrates that ending the use of this chemical in baby bottles is a sensible and warranted step" and that "the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have relied on outdated and flawed studies backed predominantly by the chemicals industry and disregarded hundreds of independent scientific peer reviewed papers that question the validity that low levels of BPA are safe."
The organisation calls for the British Government to "end the use of BPA in baby bottles as a matter of priority by introducing regulations, similar to those already introduced in Canada and expected to be brought about in the US, in order to decrease the exposure to BPA of newborns and very young babies." It is also pressuring for labelling on all food contact items that contain BPA.
The British Plastics Federation today, in its own words, "reassured members of the public on the safety of bisphenol A". Its statement calls the campaign "misleading and based upon a selective use of evidence" and says that for more than 50 years consumer products made with bisphenol A have been used safely.
The BPF quotes the UK Food Standards Agency as reasserting its position in response to the campaign: "The Food Standards Agency, working closely with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the European Commission have looked into the potential risks from BPA and found that exposure of UK consumers to bisphenol A (BPA) from all sources, including food contact materials, was well below levels considered harmful.
"The EFSA assessed the health impact of BPA in 2006 and established a tolerable daily intake (TDI), which is the amount that can be eaten every day, over a whole lifetime, without causing appreciable harm. In July and October 2008 EFSA confirmed that this TDI would also apply to infants and pregnant women. The FSA has estimated that a 3 month-old bottle-fed baby that weighs around 6 kg would need to consume more than four times the usual number of bottles of baby formula a day before it would reach the TDI."
The BPF also discredits the methodology of research conducted by Breast Cancer UK in compiling its public opinion figures, and clarifies that the use of BPA in baby bottles has not been banned or restricted by the Canadian Government.
It concludes: "BPA has been extensively studied and the British Plastics Federation supports the UK Food Standard Agency view that BPA poses no risk to human health and no further precautions are required for BPA-based food contact materials."
The BPF has a position paper on BPA at
www.bpf.co.uk/Press/BisphenolA.aspx
