The Globe and Mail reports today that Health Canada, the government agency responsible for the health of Canadians, is expected to announce as early as Wednesday its assessment that Bisphenol-A, the potential endocrine disruptor that has become a political football for the plastics industry in general and the baby bottle industry in particular, is a dangerous substance.
"Until now, regulators in other countries have accepted the industry's assertion that BPA is harmless at the tiny, parts-per-billion type exposures from canned food and plastic beverage containers," the Mail writes. "The conclusion by Health Canada that BPA is a possible threat... will amount to one of the most important regulatory decisions regarding a single chemical in decades, and will put pressure on its coupterparts at both the European Union and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reconsider their approval."
Under Health Canada's regulatory approach, the government department, along with Environment Canada, is expected later this week to release a draft assessment indicating that bisphenol A endangers people and the environment. The document outlining this finding will be open for a 60-day public comment period. If no new information is made available through the consultation to overturn the finding, the government will issue a final report outlining control measures within a year.We heard rumors of this possibility almost two months ago from industry insiders, but had no official sources to go on. The representatives from two different companies who raised the issue in conversations with us believed at that time that such a move by Canada would trigger reforms in the European Union and/or Japan, which in turn would finally force the FDA to disentangle itself from the American Chemistry Council's hard sell of BPA and reevaluate the chemical's safety.
The government had a deadline of mid-May to issue its BPA assessment but is moving earlier because of intense public interest. [Link]
Since then, however, other developments have us thinking that the U.S. position may shift even before the EU does. More on that soon.
5 comments:
Wow. Thanks for the info. This all seems to really be tailspinning at once...I know the info has bene out there for years, but all of a sudden it seems very out there in mainstrea media... we are on the verge of what will hopefully be major change and reform!
Just went out today and bought some new tableware for the kiddos (Nuby pp plates) I think our current ones are PP too, but they are showing some wear, so I figured it was about time to replace.
Also bought some great pp juice box sippys at walmart (per the recommendation of thesoftlanding)
threw out a ton of Ikea tableware I thought was PP but after looking on the site I saw it was in fact polycarbonate. Ikea does have a great line of PP tableware.
All my avent bottles were thrown in the trash a month ago after coming across your blog...we will use glass or bornfree with the next baby. I feel so guilty throwing this stuff out... any suggestions as to what to do with it? (Of course I will recycle what I can) but I don't want to donate toxic plates to goodwill!
Does this mean I'll have a reason to start buying all of my canned goods from Canada? Not that all Canadian canned goods will originate from Canada, but you just know food companies will have two standards -- cans made for Canada and cans made for America.
Wow, finally! It's particularly scary when you consider how widespread polycarbonate use is, such as being used in implantable medical devices. The epoxy resin in can linings is particularly freaky. Will it ever end?
I'd love to hear more about the potential risks of other types of plastics (since they're just so ubiquitous!)
librarycollective.blogspot.com
So what are people with formula fed babies supposed to do now that they're talking about BPA in the top and bottom lids of the cans?!?
I've been paying close attention to this development this week, as it was thought Health Canada would make the declaration as early as Wednesday (but, they didn't). Unfortunately, declaring BPA to be a dangerous substance doesn't mean too much. There won't necessarily be any bans on products with BPA. But, it's a step forward.
And, thankfully, retailers are taking matters into their own hands in Canada. It was reported on the radio yesterday that some major retailers (Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, HBC - which owns The Bay and Zellers, to name a few) are pulling products from their shelves that contain BPA - including baby products!
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