Apr 20, 2008

More U.S. retailers give BPA the bootBy Liz SzaboUSAToday.com

Canada’s proposed ban on a hormone-like chemical in baby bottles has spurred U.S. retailers and legislators to try to phase out use of the ingredient, called bisphenol A, or BPA.

Canada’s announcement Friday came just days after the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found “some concern” that low levels of BPA cause changes in behavior and the brain, prostate gland, mammary gland and the age at which girls enter puberty.

Toys ‘R’ Us announced Monday that it will phase out bottles and other “baby feeding products” containing BPA by the end of the year. Wal-Mart last week said that it will stop selling baby bottles made with BPA by early next year.

Nalgene, which makes plastic water bottles popular with hikers, and Playtex, which makes a variety of baby products, also say they’ll stop using BPA, an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says the senator plans to introduce legislation today to ban BPA from all baby bottles.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, notes that BPA has been used safely for decades and is an important ingredient that makes plastics flexible and shatter-resistant.

Rick Locker, an attorney for the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, says parents can be confident that products made with BPA are safe. Locker notes that the Food and Drug Administration has not found that BPA poses a risk to children. Neither have regulatory agencies in Japan or Europe, he says.

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