FDA Grants Chemical Industry’s BPA Request

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted the request of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to phase out rules allowing the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. The agency said it is taking this step not because BPA is unsafe when used in these products, but because the substance simply isn't used in either of them anymore.

ACC, the U.S. chemical industry's chief association, had petitioned the FDA to phase out rules allowing BPA in those products in October, after the Council determined that all manufacturers of bottles and sippy cups had abandoned the chemical’s use in those products. The petition stressed that the ACC proposal to FDA was "not based on [new] scientific evidence or [concerns about] safety" and was offered in an effort to clarify for consumers that BPA is no longer used to manufacture these products. State legislative and regulatory actions across the country had contributed to confusion about whether baby bottles and sippy cups sold in the United States contained BPA. In fact, manufacturers of baby bottles and sippy cups announced several years ago that due to consumer preference they had stopped using BPA in their products.

FDA spokesman Allen Curtis said in a statement that "The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food." BPA is one of the most extensively tested materials in use today and has been a part of the packaging industry since the 1950s. The consensus of government agencies across the world is that BPA is safe for use in food-contact materials, including those intended for infants and toddlers. Studies to the contrary were scientifically refuted in a comprehensive study released by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during 2011.

MWFPA continues to oppose legislative efforts to ban BPA from food packaging.