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Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally banned the chemical BPA (bispehnol-A), the plastic hardening chemical, from use in baby bottles and sippy cups. Due to safety concerns by manufacturers of baby bottles and sippy-type children’s cups, most manufacturers had stopped using BPA in their children’s beverage container products. The American Chemistry Council actually requested that FDA close out rules that permitted BPA’s use in baby and child beverage container products late last year. An article by CBS News Staff noted that it is “illegal for companies to use substances not covered by FDA rules.”

FDA Spokesperson Allen Curtis noted that the FDA still backs the safety of BPA for use in products that contain food.[1][1] The FDA, it should be noted recently rejected a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council to ban BPA in all food packaging, noting that “there’s not enough evidence that the BPA health effects in rodent and animal studies might apply to humans.” One has to wonder—The FDA banned Red No. 2 and numerous other food additives due to the results of rodent and animal studies…

The chemical industry hopes that requesting this move now, they can stave off tougher regulations on the use of BPA in food, beverage and other container packaging, due to the public’s health concerns. Congressional legislation on the horizon may bode otherwise. Results of experimentation to determine the extent of the use of BPA in food and beverage packaging in the United States has found that most Americans have traces of BPA in their body fluids.


[1][1] FDA bans BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups, CBS News Staff, July 17, 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-504763_162-57473823.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

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