Is the Writing on the Wall for Polycarbonate Bottles?

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Environmental health organisations in the United States and Canada are calling for a ban on the use of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, toddler sippy cups, water bottles and other food and beverage containers. Canada intends to ban the import and sale of plastic polycarbonate baby bottles, which would be the first such step in the world.

Polycarbonate is a plastic made with the chemical bisphenol A, widely used in food and water containers. Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement said the ban would only extend to bottles used by newborns and infants, as evidence is strongest that early development may be sensitive to it.

Major Canadian retail chains have already started removing bottles and containers containing bisphenol A, citing public concerns about possible health risks.

"We have concluded it is better to be safe than sorry," Clement said in an announcement. He also urged parents never to pour boiling water into baby bottles containing bisphenol A.

This week the National Toxicology Program, part of the US government's National Institutes of Health, issued a draft report expressing concern that BPA could cause neural and behavioral problems in fetuses, infants and children. Relying on the results of animal studies, it expressed concern about possible links between BPA exposure and early puberty and prostate and breast cancer.

Environmental groups say it is a dangerous chemical, while the industry says its use in plastic products is safe.

The call for a ban coincides with publication of a new study, Baby's Toxic Bottle: Bisphenol A Leaching from Popular Brands of Baby Bottles, commissioned by the same group of organisations, showing that BPA leaches from popular brands of plastic baby bottles when the bottles are heated.

This study comes just days after another study found that exposing plastic bottles in general to boiling water can release BPA 55 times faster than normal.
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"This is quite concerning. All 19 polycarbonate bottles [investigated in the study] leached BPA when heated. This is clearly showing that BPA is certainly leaching from popular and common consumer products," said Judith Robinson, special projects director with the Environmental Health Fund.

"We're calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of BPA in all baby bottles, as well as all food and beverage containers. It's not necessary, and we're calling for an end to it immediately” she said.

There is concern in many quarters that BPA, an environmental estrogen, may pose some risk to development and reproduction, although it's unclear at what level that harm begins to occur. The fear has been that exposure to BPA can cause birth defects and developmental problems. In addition, exposure to BPA has been blamed for a variety of other problems, including cancer, diabetes, obesity and attention-deficit disorder.

Dr. David Carpenter, a professor of environmental health sciences at the State University of New York at Albany School of Public Health, said BPA taken into the body before birth and in the early years of life can alter the ratio of sex hormones and affect development.

"It's absolutely obscene to use a substance that can make little boys less masculine and opens the chance that little girls will go on to develop breast cancer," he said.

The report authors called for manufacturers to phase out BPA and switch to safer products and urged the federal government to update regulations concerning this chemical.

Environmental activists have long warned about health concerns regarding the chemical. They praised the draft findings of the National Toxicology Program, which cited more potential worries about the chemical than did a panel of experts that advised the program last year.

"NTP's decision corrects the scientific record. It reflects a significant body of science showing that BPA may play a larger role than previously thought in a host of common health problems," Anila Jacob of the Environmental Working Group said in a statement.

"At this point, the writing is on the wall for bisphenol A. Major retailers and governments all across the country and the world are now recognising that this chemical is extremely toxic at very low levels of exposure," said Michael Schade of the US environmental group Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

Critics of BPA said more than 150 scientific studies involving laboratory rodents show BPA to be harmful at even low levels. But a representative of the plastics industry dismissed the alarm.