FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg today announced a shift in her agency's stance on the health risks posed by Bisphenol A,  a chemical used in clear plastic bottles and in the linings of food and beverage cans, but did not call for a ban on  its use in food contact substances.  Consumers Union,  the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, had recommended that manufacturers and the government take that step after our recent tests of canned foods found that nearly all of 19 name-brand foods we tested contained BPA.

In 2008,  the FDA pronounced the chemical safe for use in baby bottles and other food containers,  even though a 2008 report from another federal agency, the National Toxicology Program, concluded that BPA  was of “some concern for effects on the brain, behavior and prostate gland in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures.” 

Hamburg now says that based on FDA’s  ongoing review of  emerging studies on BPA’s  health risks,  it shares that concern and supports efforts to produce BPA-free baby bottles and find alternatives to BPA for can linings. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary William Corr said his department is investing $30 million in both human and animal studies to further assess BPA’s risks.

Consumers Union expressed disappointment with the Food & Drug Administration's failure to ban BPA, despite announcing that there is cause for concern over its potential effect on children.  "FDA's admission of concern with BPA is an encouraging change in its position and we hope it will lead to concrete protection for consumers. However, we are concerned that the new advice on reducing exposure puts the onus on consumers to protect themselves until such a ban is put in place." said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, CU's Director of Technical Policy. "The scientific evidence is clear that BPA poses serious health risks, especially to children and the developing fetus. It is time for the FDA and Congress to act quickly to ban this toxin from all food and beverage containers."

-- Andrea Rock