US Senate mulls bill to ban BPA

30 April 2008 22:47  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--A group of Democrat senators has introduced legislation to ban bisphenol-A (BPA) in all children’s products sold in the US and on Wednesday indicated they may seek an overall ban on the chemical in all consumer products.

 

The bill, sponsored chiefly by Democrat Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, provides that within six months of enactment the law would bar from commerce any product intended for use by or the care of a child of seven years or younger.

 

Citing a US Department of Health & Human Services study issued earlier this month saying that BPA may pose a health risk, Senator Schumer said:  “When a fire starts to burn, you don’t wait for it to engulf the house before you sound the alarm.”

 

“There have been enough warning signs about the dangers of this chemical that we cannot sit idly by and continue to allow vulnerable children and infants to be exposed,” he said.

 

Senator Feinstein said that “We cannot let the health of our children hang in the balance while we wait for more studies”.

 

The bill also calls for an additional study of BPA’s potential health risks, directing the Centers for Disease Control to present to Congress within three months a plan for a comprehensive evaluation of health effects of BPA “in all age groups and in pregnant women”.

 

That provision suggests, said Capitol Hill sources, that a broader BPA ban may be sought later.

 

In addition, the proposed legislation would allow individual states to enact and enforce BPA bans that are more stringent than the bill’s own provisions.

 

The US chemicals industry has argued that health concerns over BPA are overblown.  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported earlier this week that its recent review of emerging literature on BPA indicates there is no safety concern for the chemical in consumer products, including those for infants and children.

 

Cosponsored by Senator and Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (New York) and former Democrat presidential nominee Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the BPA ban bill is certain to get attention during the US general election campaign now under way and stands a good chance of passage by Congress.

By: Joe Kamalick
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