FDA won’t ban bisphenol A from food packaging

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 1 2012

In a long drawn decision the U.S. government announced Friday that it will not ban bisphenol A, an industrial chemical believed to disrupt the reproductive and nervous systems, from food and drink packaging.

Bisphenol A is found in many hard plastic bottles and metal-based food and beverage cans. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration's official stance is that toxicity tests show low levels of exposure to BPA is safe, but it does acknowledge other studies show there could be some concern about BPA's effect on the brain, behavior, prostate gland in fetuses, infants and young children. The FDA is carrying out in-depth studies, but until results are available, it does support efforts to replace or minimize BPA in food can linings.

The National Resources Defense Council filed a petition with the FDA 2008 asking it to ban BPA from all food containers. Although the FDA was legally required to respond to the petition within 180 days, two years passed with no response. The NRDC filed a lawsuit against the FDA in August to force a response and a federal judge ruled the FDA had until the end of March to decide whether to ban the chemical.

“While evidence from some studies have raised questions as to whether BPA may be associated with a variety of health effects, there remain serious questions about these studies, particularly as they relate to humans,” the agency said in its response. The agency's official position is that there is “some concern” about BPA's effects on young children. The government is spending $30 million to conduct additional studies on the chemical's impact on humans. Several federal studies published in the last two years suggest that even human embryos retain far less BPA than other animals.

The FDA said it will continue research on the health effects of the widely used chemical. The agency did not close the door on future regulation. “This is not a final safety determination on BPA,” FDA spokesman Douglas Karas said. “There is a commitment to doing a thorough evaluation of the risk of BPA.”

Scientists still are working to determine what effects BPA, which mimics estrogen in the body, has on human health once it’s ingested. They know that it is metabolized quickly and that it has been shown to have negative effects in mice, including developmental and reproductive abnormalities, precancerous changes in the prostate and breast and other health problems. In epidemiological studies, researchers have reported correlations between BPA and higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and liver problems.

Dr. Sarah Janssen, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council, said, “We always support more research but we also wonder, when is enough enough?… What the FDA is saying is: We’re going to keep studying it and in the meantime you’re going to still eat it and then maybe later we’ll tell you it’s not safe.”

Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents manufacturers, said that the FDA decision “again confirms that BPA is safe for use in food-contact materials, as it has been approved and used safely for four decades.”

About 90 percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their bodies, mainly because it leaches out of bottles, canned food and other food containers. Manufacturers have stopped using BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups sold. While older children and adults quickly eliminate the chemical through their kidneys, newborns and infants can retain it for longer. Scientists pushing for a ban on the chemical argue that BPA mimics the effects of the hormone estrogen, interfering with growth.