Wal-Mart's Canadian division announced Wednesday they would "immediately stop the sale of select baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, food containers and water bottles containing bisphenol A (BPA), as identified by its product suppliers" after it became clear that Health Canada would be declaring BPA a dangerous substance.
Yesterday Wal-Mart announced that its U.S. stores would stop selling any bottles containing Bisphenol-A by early 2009. Today Nalgene announced they would actually discontinue their polycarbonate line, rather than just adding new, BPA-free ones. (For the moment, a press release is up on the Nalgene Outdoor website.)
For our part, we'll be working to make sure that parents are aware that this issue is not confined to baby bottles and adult drinkware, but also to sippy cups, pacifiers, tableware, baby utensils, teethers, and bath toys. We don't think that will be too hard a point to get across.
U.S. company reps have been telling us for months that creating a pacifier with a non-polycarbonate shield is a nearly-intractable challenge, despite the fact that Gerber and a few other companies have proven that this can be done safely. We suspect several key players will move quickly to bring BPA-free pacifiers onto the market.
The landscape of available products is about to shift very dramatically. More stores are likely to fall in line with Wal-Mart's policies and the FDA will be forced to get involved again before long.
In the months to come, consumers should watch for misleading claims by companies in two areas:
- Claims that products with some BPA-containing parts are "BPA-free" because the main bottle body is non-polycarbonate. Because the FDA still says the chemical is safe for human consumption there is no regulation of what "BPA-free" means. Keep that in mind and use our Z Report on BPA to find products that contain no BPA in any of their parts, a standard we've had since we first started reporting on the issue.
- Claims that products are "now BPA-free" when they still contain BPA on store shelves. New products take several months just to pass through production and distribution channels to reach store shelves, and that's after they've been designed, tested and approved for production. At Nuby, for example, it takes 6-9 months from the beginning of production until an item can be purchased from a retailer. Nuby has made this easier by labeling all new products as "BPA-free" when they are (their standard is the same as ours) which led us to advise consumers to buy their products only when so labeled. Many companies will not label because they will be concerned about their ability to sell all of their warehoused, polycarbonate stock during the transition. Beware of this potential smokescreen. All of the recommendations in the Z Report are based on what we believe is actually in stores now, not what companies plan to do or are moving through production that hasn't yet reached consumers.
19 comments:
Thanks for this. I have been wondering. That is great about Walmart.
I agree... the more you (and we) get the word out about other products other than bottles and stores realize that their sales have gone down on certain products they will get a clue. Also, U have begin "reviewing" items on target.com., amazon.com, walmart.com, etc letting consumers know that the item in question has BPA.
There are BPA free pacifiers. My son has several the Evenflo Mimi and Natursutten.
I have not seen them sold in store though and I had to purchase mine online.
Yes, Emily - we cover pacifiers in our Z Report, and Evenflo's new Mimi pacifier is one good option. Gerber also has BPA-free pacifiers; we may not have made this clear in our phrasing in the post!
Just curious, any idea if bpa is in things like the PVC line that brings city water to my house?
Thanks for this great resource.
Don't know if you have ever covered this, as I'm a newbie here, but we see similar "supposedly-safe"claims with the pharmaceutical industry, especially about vaccines and thimerosal.
One of the pediatricians in the practice we went to insisted that there was NO thimerosal in the vaccines from 2001 on--I had to insist that the nurse bring the package insert to show her where thimerosal was clearly listed on a DPT they were about to give my daughter--in 2003.
Please keep up the good work!
I read in one article that this chemical hadn't been tested for 50 years. have you any info re that? Also, even though I know so many disturbing facts about the food industry, for some silly reason I thought baby products would be constantly tested and re-tested! Now my question is, what other chemicals are in baby products in particular, who tests them, how often, how rigorously and how objectively. How do I know that by switching from Bpa-free products I'm not actually switching to an even worse but untested chemical? Hmm.. one shouldn't ever have to have such worries re baby products.
My husband saw a documentary re the toxicity of plastics we use way back in 1992. If there were such serious questions being raised so long ago, government bodies internationally are ultimately responsible for not holding these industries accountable for products sold to parents who buy them presuming no-one would be allowed to sell a toxic product to their babies! I know there are complexities, but, unfortunately, the biggest one is in the form of small, rectangular pieces of paper, watermarked!
Be careful! I just wanted to point out the statement re just becuase a company is BPA-free now doesn't mean there are not bpa plastics still on the shelves. I got a Classic Pooh meal mate marketed for Target by The First Years. And although they now say their mealmates are BPA free, when I emailed them about this specific bowl and spoon they did tell me it was made of polycarbonate. Yikes! And it was such a cute dish, too. :(
Does anyone know about the Parent's Choice brand bottles sold at Walmart that state BPA FREE on the packaging? Picked some of these up today but unsure if I should believe this BPA Free claim or not. I bought my 10month old son Born Free bottles but he rejects them most of the time because he is used to the smaller nipple size (think Playtex Ventaire). HelP!!
@ChristyInTexas, Our report consists of data collected from companies; we sometimes make multiple calls to ensure they are providing consistent information, but we have no way of independently verifying their claims. We have no reason to believe that a bottle produced for Wal-Mart and labeled as BPA-free would not be BPA-free, and in fact such an action would put a company on some pretty dangerous legal ground, so I'd say the claim is almost certain to be true. You could always call Wal-Mart and ask them what it was made out of - it could still be #7 if it is made of polyamide or PES, but my guess is it's #5 (polypropylene) and will be labeled as such on the bottom of the bottle. Let us know if you get some additional information, I'm sure other readers would like to hear it too!
@jeremiahmcnichols....Thanks so much for your speedy reply AND for all of the hard but very-much needed work you do. I am trying to get in touch with Walmart and will post here if I get any additional info. ...the cap has the "5" in the triangle...the bottom of the bottle has the triangle but no # in the middle...but it says PP underneath it...thoughts?
Does anyone know if the Avent Electric Steam Sterilizer is BPA-free?
I can't seem to find any info about this online. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for this amazing site!
I just want to clarify that gerber plastic food containers are safe, even though they have the #7 on them, right????? please repond.
@Anonymous: Gerber plastic food containers are not polycarbonate. They are labeled as #7 because they are a layered composite of multiple plastic types; none of them contain BPA.
This website has been an enormous help to me in switching my sons things over to safe plastics. I have thrown out his old Nuby cups (because I could not find anywhere if they were safe, and figured if it wasn't advertised as safe, it must not be) Fornately, my son no longer uses a bottle and was mostly breastfed, but all of my Avent bottles will be heading to the trash before we have another baby. I am wondering now about the plates that I use for him. The plates are Platex (Baby Einsteins) made of melamine. Is this safe? If not, what can you suggest for safe plates for children. Obviously, adult plates would be unsafe since they would break if thrown on the floor. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
As an industry representative, it is amazing that consumers will react to inaccurate or misleading data. BPA has shown no adverse effects in controlled scientific studies. Just because canada banned the use doesn't mean it was based on scientific study. Canda like the US bends from the pressue of "safety concerned citizens" however that doesn't mean the citizens do the homework to find out if the claims that BPA is harmful or not, they just listen to and do as the Jonese do.
Anonymous, I have to ask, 1-Do you have children, and 2-Are you willing to put their safety at risk to find out 5 years from now that BPA is in fact (based on scientific results) unsafe? My thoughts are that these "safety concerned citizens" are just that. Concerned about their children's safety. As far as I am concerned, while the jury is apparently out on this matter, I will use the alternative. But, thanks for obviously biased opinion.
Thank you all for the very useful info and comments. As a new mom it is nice to read comments from others parent with similar concerns. I just got back from purchasing 2 Gerber bottles (no BPA) that can be used with the avent nipples. Is it ok to do that? Are the Avent nipples and top ok? Also, does anyone know if I can return the unused avent bottles to babies r us without a receipt? Just wanted to check before I toss those too. One more thing, Kuddos to you Lindsay, I could not have said it better myself.
New Mom, Babies R Us is usually pretty good about accepting returns without a receipt. (I returned a car seat without any problems) However, I think it is best if you still have the box. Im wondering what to do with all of my Avent bottles. I figure if I throw them out then they will sit in landfills for eternity, so I dont know what to do. And, I also think that the Avent nipples are safe, but I do not know about the plastic rings. PS...I did see that Avent has come out with a BPA free bottle. I did not see it at Babies R Us yet.
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