US and Denmark Move Forward on BPA

This past week has been a bad one for BPA, but another affirmative one for Canada. To expand, action initiated by Canada against the hormone-mimicking chemical is becoming more globalized with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing that it is going to intensify its study of BPA’s effects and consider designating it as a “chemical of concern”, and with the Danish government introducing a temporary national ban on BPA-containing products in contact with children’s food.

In the US, yesterday’s news is particularly welcome for those pushing for federal action on BPA as the chemical failed to be added to the EPA’s “chemicals of concern” list last December. It also follows an earlier US Food and Drug Administration announcement that BPA poses “some concern” for the health of fetuses, infants, and young children.

The Danish ban is undergoing a three-month transitional period, with a full prohibition on certain BPA-containing products used by 0 – 3 year old children beginning on July 1, 2010. It is a precautionary response to a recent assessment by the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark which raised uncertainty about BPA’s low-dose effect on learning capacity.

BPA is a massively produced chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic (recycling # 7) food and beverage containers, the linings of metal food cans, and various other products from which it can leach. Canada was the first country to take action on BPA, proposing that it be designated as “toxic” in Canada and that it be banned from baby bottles.