On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that bisphenol A (BPA) is now formally banned from use in baby bottles and sippy cups. The announcement came as a surprise to some as the FDA had only just recently, on March 30, 2012, issued a decision to deny a petition by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to ban the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in all food and beverage packaging materials (see previous blog post on FDA’s denial here). The FDA explained in its denial letter that it appreciated the NRDC’s concern for consumer safety, and that it planned to continue to study the effects of BPA on human health.
Although the FDA is prohibiting the controversial chemical from baby bottles and sippy cups, the agency will continue to allow the presence of BPA in the packaging of other consumer goods. According to a statement by FDA spokesman Allen Curtis, “The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food.” Rather than being based on safety, the FDA maintained that the ban is in response to the baby bottle industry’s voluntary phase out of the chemical over the last several years.
In related news, Washington State’s ban on the use of BPA in plastic sports bottles became effective last week. The ban is the result of a law passed in 2010 (RCW 70.280) prohibiting the sale of certain products containing BPA. Beginning in July 2011, manufacturers were banned from using BPA in bottles, cups and other containers for children under the age of 3. Now the law has been officially extended to prohibit the presence of BPA in sports bottles. A statement from the Washington State Department of Ecology explains that “[n]o sports bottles containing the chemical BPA can be made, sold or distributed in Washington as of July 1, 2012.” The ban will apply to all sports bottles up to 64 ounces. However, metals cans designed to hold or pack food will still be allowed to contain BPA.