BPA, or bisphenol A is a word few have heard of, but nearly everyone in this country has come into contact with. Out of the thousands upon thousands of chemicals that are manufactured, this one helps make CDs, baby bottles, and everything else that is made with plastics. Plastics are used for nearly everything in our society. Now it turns out that the FDA covered up studies that linked the compound to cancer by using two other studies to show it was safe. Guess what, those reports were funded by the same companies that produce the materials.
From The Washington Post:
The draft report by the National Toxicology Program signaled a turning point in the government's position on bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical so ubiquitous in the United States that it has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of the population over 6 years of age.
Last year, another expert panel using outside scientists minimized the health risks of BPA, but its findings were widely assailed after a congressional investigation found that a firm hired to perform scientific analysis was also working for the chemical industry.[...]
The FDA has been under fire from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been investigating the influence of the chemical industry on the agency's regulation of BPA in plastic liners in metal cans of baby formula.
Last month, in response to questions from lawmakers, the FDA said it had disregarded hundreds of government and academic studies about the cancer risks of BPA and used just two studies funded by the chemical industry to determine that the chemical is safe.
Yesterday's report should spur the FDA to reconsider its decisions regarding BPA, said Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the Energy and Commerce chairman, and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee.
This is damning evidence should be spurring Congress to pull the products right off the shelf. Yet in our country where chemical industry lobbyists weld tremendous influence are trying to slow the investigations down. Of course they are deathly afraid of news like this, are quick to counteract.
But Steven G. Hentges, executive director of the polycarbonate/BPA global group at the American Chemistry Council, said the new report does not mean BPA is unsafe."It found no serious or high-level concerns for human health," he said. "More research is always considered valuable."
I wonder if that is "valuable" like the doctors who used to tell us smoking was o.k. and to drink during pregnancies long ago? The thing about this, BPA isn't as toxic as radioactive waste or Drano, but it does have an effect on the body. It is literally everywhere in our society. What we do about this omnipresent force is anyone's guess (perhaps working to ban it?). If the government won't handle it properly though, consumers must become pro-active and buy as many of their goods that are BPA-free as possible.
|