FDA defends safety of baby bottle chemical
Balks at warning for plastic items
WASHINGTON - The US Food and Drug Administration yesterday said that it sees no reason to tell consumers to stop using products such as baby bottles made with a controversial chemical found in many plastic items.
Norris Alderson, the FDA's associate commissioner for science, said that although the regulatory agency is reviewing safety concerns about the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, "a large body of available evidence" shows that products such as liquid or food containers made with it are safe.
In testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Alderson also defended the FDA's reliance on two industry-funded studies in determining that products containing BPA are safe. Several studies have found a variety of health problems in laboratory animals exposed to BPA.
Some senators accused the FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission of failing to protect US consumers from BPA as well as phthalates, a class of chemicals used to improve flexibility in plastics.
The Senate passed in March legislation that would impose a nationwide ban on phthalates in children's products.
"The FDA could hardly be doing less," Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, told Alderson.
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the FDA was "looking the other way" on safety concerns about BPA. "Parents always err on the side of caution when it comes to their kids' health. We think that the law should do the same," he added.
Schumer, Kerry, and other Democratic senators in April introduced a bill to ban BPA in children's products. It also would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the health effects of BPA in children and adults.
