UpdateCanada may peg bisphenol-A as dangerous

16 April 2008 00:28  [Source: ICIS news]

(Adds Health Canada response in paragraph 4, background in paragraph 7, David Hyman quote in paragraph 8, and Dow quotes in paragraphs 9-12)

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--The Canadian government is expected to officially classify bisphenol-A (BPA) as a dangerous substance this week, according to an article in the Canadian press on Tuesday.

Such a move by the federal health agency Health Canada would make it the world’s first regulatory body to define the chemical as dangerous and open the door for the country to regulate its use, according to the article.

The agency is expected to make the announcement as early as Wednesday, according to a report in the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Canadian government representatives declined to comment, but said they would publicise any announcement before it was made. 

BPA is commonly used in polycarbonate (PC) production. Some health studies have shown that it mimics estrogen and could lead to diabetes and cancer if ingested in large enough qualities. PC food and drink containers have been shown to leach out BPA when they are heated in the dishwasher or exposed to acidic substances.  

Chemical industry insiders, including the American Chemistry Council, have disputed the studies’ validity, however, pointing to other studies showing the average person does not ingest enough BPA to make it a health threat.

Such a move by the Health Canada would make it the world’s first regulatory body to define the chemical as dangerous and open the door for Canada to regulate its use. It could also add pressure to health agencies in other countries to re-evaluate their decision on BPA safety.

Foreign regulators “are not bound by what another agency has done, but there tends to be reasonable coordination across countries,” said David Hyman, a former member of the US Federal Trade Commission and a law professor at the University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign. “There are attempts to learn and share information from other regulators.”

Mark Walton, a spokesman for Dow Chemical’s chemicals and health division, said Health Canada’s classifying BPA as potentially dangerous could be a way for it to usher in more studies on the chemical, a move he said was in reaction to mounting worries about its health effects.

“This enables them to take the next step in their regulatory process,” he said. “If they don’t declare it toxic, it goes to the bottom of their list for assessments. Dow sees this as part of the regulatory evaluation of this chemical.”

Walton said he did not believe new studies would show BPA to be dangerous.

“This has been looked at by folks who don’t have a stake in the product, and they’ve said they haven’t seen anything that says this shouldn’t be in the market,” he said.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently among one of the world’s health agencies that have declared BPA to be safe. But a US government committee is probing whether the agency favoured information from chemical-industry funded studies before reaching that conclusion. The committee hinted that it might require the FDA to review its evaluation process. 

The retail market has already spoken, however, with stores cutting back on food and beverage containers containing BPA. Sports equipment businesses have begun stocking more BPA-free refillable drinking bottles, while stores like Babies R Us have reported much higher sales of glass baby bottles in 2007 than in years past.

For more information on BPA and PC, visit ICIS Chemical Intelligence

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Ben Lefebvre
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