USA Today is reporting that the FDA’s advisory board, a group of outside experts, has voted unanimously that the agency ignored crucial evidence that BPA could indeed harm children.
It is mostly our children that are exposed to BPA in the form of their plastic baby bottles and sippy cups, but adults aren’t in the clear. Many of us drink water from a bottle and the insides of many of our canned goods are lined with BPA. Tests have shown 93% of Americans have this chemical in their bodies.
The FDA’s August decision saying BPA is safe was determined from studies done only by the chemical industry. Other studies that weren’t even considered suggest quite the opposite, that BPA acts like the hormone estrogen, posing harm to children at levels at least ten times than what the FDA allows.
The mistakes made by the FDA are upsetting as they, the agency that oversees the safety of our food containers, underestimted BPA’s potential dangers to us, told us not to worry. But here is why we should:
*When measuring the amount of BPA to which babies are exposed from liquid infant formula, for example, the FDA used data from more than a decade ago and sampled only 14 liquid formula cans, all from the Washington, D.C. area. It also based its exposure estimate on the average BPA level. That could allow children fed from cans with above-average BPA levels to receive far more of the chemical.
*The FDA also failed to consider the cumulative effect of being exposed to BPA from dozens of products, from sippy cups to medical devices. That fundamental error “severely limits the usefulness” of the agency’s safety estimate.
*At the advisory group’s September meeting, experts testified that children with certain health problems are given only liquid formula, as are children in the federal government’s Women, Infants and Children program for the poor.
*The FDA didn’t consider that many parents heat baby bottles in the microwave and sterilize them with boiling water, which could cause the bottles to release far more BPA.
*The FDA report doesn’t include recent studies, such as a “landmark” September report from the Journal of the American Medical Association linking BPA, for the first time, with diabetes and heart disease, says Martin Philbert, a University of Michigan professor who led the science board’s BPA subcommittee. Another study published this month suggests BPA could make breast cancer patients less likely to benefit from chemotherapy.
*The industry-funded studies used by the FDA weren’t designed to study newborns, whose bodies may process BPA very differently than adults, Philbert says. At the meeting, other science board members noted that the FDA draft doesn’t consider others who might be especially vulnerable to BPA, such as pregnant women and breast cancer patients being treated with estrogen-suppressing drugs.
The Environmental Working Group says BPA could cause brain, behavior and prostate damage at levels 500 times lower than the FDA’s exposure limit.
Sonya Lunde, a scientist with the EWG, said in an interview, “You cannot tell parents with a straight face that BPA is safe. As a parent, it’s outrageous to think that another generation is going to be born and subjected to these toxic exposures while this process works itself out.”
As a consumer, you don’t have to wait for the FDA to act.
No item here at BPAFreeKids.com will leach any type of chemical into you baby via heat, scratches or from wear and tear. You can shop here with confidence that what you give your children will not harm their growing bodies. We plan to continue adding new products that are not only non-toxic, but are of high quality and something you want to give to your child and somethng your child will want to use.
