The bill granting the FDA expanded oversight of food industries won the approval of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday. ACSH staffers are concerned about a number of provisions contained in the bill. Among them is the assignment of a research project to the FDA to further investigate possible health effects of bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical used to harden plastics that has been repeatedly confirmed as safe in its current application.
It was an eleventh-hour thing where they snuck BPA into the legislation, says ACSH's Jeff Stier. They were already studying it for academic purposes, and now there s a legislative initiative to have the FDA write up a report for Congress.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross thinks the study will do more harm than good, even if it does corroborate the safety of BPA: This will raise the profile of the issue, giving momentum to BPA opponents and offering credence to the disproved idea that this is a dangerous product that needs to be tested.
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan doubts the study would convince anyone either way: The FDA will take two years to turn in this report and some states will have banned it by then. Up until a few months ago, the FDA was good about paying attention to the evidence concerning BPA. Now the hype could start all over again.
The bill also has a provision to enforce country-of-origin labeling (COOL), which would require food products to have their ingredients origins noted on the package. The underlying reason for the legislation is an irrational fear of Chinese imports, says Stier. I reject the notion that we are safer because we know where food comes from. Food should be safe no matter where it s from.