Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Plastic may be harmful
Massachusetts attorney Tom Kiley, concentrates on legal issues regarding defective products. A recent article in the Boston Globe says Massachusetts public health officials are considering a warning about a chemical called bisphenol A used in plastic bottles.
According to the article, health officials are looking at studies done on the odorless, tasteless chemical known as BPA to determine whether to issue a public health advisory. They are also considering an outright ban on the chemical, which is used in products like sippy cups, pacifiers, and some baby bottles.
BPA is used to make reusable, hard plastic bottles more durable. It’s also used in the resins that line canned goods such as soup and infant formula to prevent corrosion. Some evidence in these studies shows that low levels of BPA might cause developmental problems in fetuses and young children, as well as other problems. Children can ingest some amount of the chemical when they drink from cups or baby bottles or if they are given canned formula.
Some local environmental advocates and mothers held a protest at the State House last week delivering 8,490 messages from consumers urging the governor and the state Department of Public Health to ban use of the chemical in children’s products, or at least issue a health advisory.
The US Food and Drug Administration, has said that products containing BPA are safe and that exposure levels, including those for infants and children, are below those that would affect health. But the FDA is also currently reviewing the chemical in greater depth.
Last year Canada announced plans to ban BPA in baby bottles as early as this year. The US National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, released a draft report last April saying there was “some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children at current human exposures.”
Some retailers and manufacturers are responding to consumer concern by pulling BPA bottles and producing BPA-free products. Six major baby bottle companies, including Gerber and Playtex, agreed to stop using the chemical in US bottles after the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey asked them. Sunoco announced to investors it would not sell BPA to customers unless they promised not to use it in food or water containers for children 3 or younger. This week, US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden and other members of the House and Senate introduced legislation for a ban on BPA in food and beverage containers.
Laura N. Vandenberg, a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts Center for Regenerative & Developmental Biology, who has studied BPA, and several colleagues at Tufts sent a letter last week to the state Department of Public Health urging it to act quickly to ban BPA in children’s products. Scientists are most concerned about early development because it is critical for long-term health.
Animal studies have linked exposure to small amounts of BPA to health problems, including reproductive harm and cancers. However, the results have not been confirmed in humans. A recent large human study linked BPA concentrations in people’s urine to an increased prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, and liver toxicity. Scientists say the link to those diseases has to be studied more to establish a definite connection. A federal study has shown that about 93 percent of the US population has BPA in their body.
