Summer’s here, and there’s nothing more relaxing than lounging on a hot night with a cool, refreshing beverage. Or, how about nourishing your child on those sultry summer days with a fresh drink from a sippy cup or baby bottle. But, what if I told you that those drinks are also infused with an endocrine disruptor associated with heart disease and diabetes. No, it’s not the latest fad coffee drink but a dangerous toxin that is found in everyday consumer products.
You, like millions of other Americans, probably regularly use and consume products made with Bisphenol A (BPA), a toxic chemical that is a $6 billion global industry. It’s found in ordinary products such as baby bottles, sippy cups and canned food. Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration, which is supposedly deemed with the task of protecting consumer interests has forgotten who it represents.Â
Despite numerous scientific studies, including a recent one from the American Medical Association, confirming the dangers of BPA, the FDA instead has chosen to pledge its ongoing support for the use of this chemical. Says FDA scientist Laura Tarantino, “A margin of safety exists that is adequate to protect consumers, including infants and children, at the current levels of exposure.” Despite the agency’s continued allegiance to this toxic product, consumers, politicians and advocacy groups are fighting back and saying no to BPA.
Corporations are getting anxious over the uproar and outrage generated at their continued use of BPA. A host of companies that use BPA met recently to establish the so-called BPA Joint Trade Association. “Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Del Monte, Crown, the American Chemistry Council, the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc. and Grocery Manufacturers Association convened behind closed doors at Washington’s exclusive Cosmos Club and committed $500,000 to an effort to ‘prolong the life of BPA.’” These executives tried craft messages to allay consumers fears by targeting the most vulnerable populations, young mothers and pregnant women, with fear tactics.
Fortunately, the public is smarter than these executives and the FDA. Consumers have choice and power to say no to corporations pushing dangerous toxins on them and their families. The Environmental Working Group offers online resources for finding BPA-free products. And, get involved today to help to ban this product. It’s something we should all live without.
(picture: pixnpics, flickr Creative Commons)
CATEGORIES: Education, Environment
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Sarah, I think you’ve lept to some wrong conclusions. I dont think BPA is hurting people. Everything is dangerous under some scenario, and for humans and BPA, you are not going to reach that level by drinking from a sippy cup or eating from a can. I can understand why you might think so. EWG has made a crusade to ban BPA because it popped up in the science literature and they read about BPA and its hazards, but hazards are different than risks or actual problems. Gasoline causes fire, which burns people to death. We dont ban gasoline because that hazard rarely happens, only under certain circumstances, we can prevent them, and because its useful. The same is true with BPA. I think EWG was wrong to suggest that BPA is a public health risk. Also I think you (in part because EWG and others) are creating a ‘big tabacco’ story around BPA that doesnt exist. I understand big business wants to protect its bottom line and it makes us feel less uninformed if big industry were colluding/manipulating government to hide danger, but I dont think the FDA is being manipulated. If that were true why has every food safety authority in the world recently confirmed the safety of use of BPA-plastics? Did big industry buy them all off? Even canada’s food safety folks concluded it posed no risk, but the politicians banned it from sippy cups ‘just in case’. I know it may feel like there is the ‘big’ government/industry behemoth to fight against, but really the behemoth is retail momentum because people find the products made with it useful. There are even potentially good reasons to start limiting the use of BPA plastics, but to say that it is hurting people is not true. The science you’ve been shown is only the potential hazards, not the actual effects. Its only part of the truth, and the story you’ve been told is just that, a story. Read the european food safety authorities assessment, read the japanese, read the UK’s, or the new zealand authorities assessment, then lets talk.