He s back at it again. Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts (along with two of his acolytes in the House) is now introducing a bill that would ban BPA from food and beverage containers. The Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2014, as the bill is named, would also give waivers to those manufacturers who want to seek safer alternatives to BPA, while requiring them to label their packaging as containing BPA.
The bill s purpose, according to its supporters, is to protect consumers, specifically the elderly, pregnant women, children and workers, because as Jason Reno, the director of government affairs for the scare de jour Environmental Working Group (EWG) says, Science shows that BPA is present in the vast majority of Americans and is harmful to human health. It has been linked to cancer, obesity, diabetes, infertility, hormone disruption and early puberty in children. Congress is taking an important step on behalf of our most vulnerable populations to help reduce exposure to BPA.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan responds: It should be clear to everyone that the typical low exposures we all have to BPA pose no health risk whatsoever. The FDA, EFSA and most other regulatory bodies consider BPA safe, and this is after numerous studies have shown that BPA is in fact safe. Furthermore, those pushing this bill have probably not considered the health hazards the alternatives to BPA may pose. The bottom line is that no other compound has been as widely tested or as widely used as BPA.
Wouldn t it be great if Congress did something useful rather than push useless legislation that will help nobody s health and impose additional regulatory burdens on manufacturers? asked ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava. Maybe Sen. Markey can take a few minutes of his precious time and actually read a scientific review of BPA, such as ours.
