FDA way late on BPA and only took a baby step

Bonnie: Isn't this nice? After the FDA let the industry take their sweet old time removing BPA, they are officially putting a lid on bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and sippy cups. This move was not for the safety of the public. "FDA's action is based on industry's abandonment of these uses of BPA," Curtis Allen, an FDA spokesperson said. "The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food."

The agency will still permit use of BPA in other food containers such as cans and water bottles, even as several manufacturers have voluntarily begun tagging their products as "BPA Free" in light of bad press.

The move was in response to an October 2011 petition from the American Chemistry Council, generally an advocate for the chemical industry. The ACC asked the FDA to phase out rules that allow BPA in food packaging because manufacturers had already abandoned it because of safety concerns.

The fact that it took a petition from a pro-chemical organization to get the FDA to react at all simply boggles the mind!

"This is only a baby step in the fight to eradicate BPA," Sarah Janssen, senior public health scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "To truly protect the public, FDA needs to ban BPA from all food packaging. This half-hearted action, taken only after consumers shifted away from BPA in children's products, is inadequate. FDA continues to dodge the bigger questions of BPA's safety."