Monday, February 22, 2010
Lisa Jackson, the Obama administration’s top environmental official, has made it clear she thinks bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical used to make plastic products, is a dangerous threat to the public. And yet after chemical industry lobbyists met with officials at the White House in December, Jackson’s agency, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, decided to pull back on regulating BPA for the next two years.
This revelation was reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as part of a three-year investigation into the risks posed by BPA, which has been linked to health problems for fetuses, infants and children.
But while the EPA has given up on regulating BPA, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to get tougher with the chemical’s use in products. The FDA says it will work to limit the public’s exposure to the chemical, which has been found in the urine of 93% of Americans tested, and seek to get manufacturers to report how much BPA they produce, where they make it and how it’s used, according to the Journal Sentinel.
The FDA’s moves represent a reversal for the agency, which previously was exposed by the newspaper for relying on industry data to judge BPA.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Regulator Waffles on Bisphenol A (by Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
FDA Does About-Face on Exposure to BPA (by Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
FDA Relied Heavily on BPA Lobby (by Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Assembly Backs Limits on BPA in Baby Bottles (by Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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