BPA is in the news, yet again. WPFO-TV (Fox 23) reports that Maine s Board of Environmental Protection has postponed plans to ban BPA from baby products until studies prove that the alternatives are safe.
Maine has made a very intelligent decision. I have never heard of anyone proposing that BPA-free products first be studied for safety before the headlong rush to ban it. Cheers to Maine for addressing this primary question, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Meanwhile, Atlantic food network reporter John Hendel wrote an article last Monday that made the idea of a BPA health threat seem like a new discovery. Hendel mainly presents the research and fearful language of University of Missouri-Columbia s Dr. Frederick vom Saal, whom he mistakenly refers to as an endocrinologist (vom Saal is a professor in the Animal Reproductive Biology Group). Dr. vom Saal asserts that BPA is not as easily and effectively excreted as other studies suggest.
When I saw the headline The Dangers of a Food Chemical: New Evidence Against BPA, I couldn t wait to read the article, Dr. Ross quips. Contrary to the headline s message, this article adds nothing new about the alleged toxicity of BPA. The author chose to echo Dr. vom Saal s rhetoric, including a description of the prevalence of BPA in Americans as nothing short of insane and grossly understimated.
Hendel also quotes vom Saal on the lack of a BPA debate in the National Institutes of Health. Well, that s true, no one at the NIH is arguing about it because the scientists at the NIH know that BPA is nothing to worry about. This article adds nothing to the BPA debate, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross adds.