Does Bisphenol-A Harm Infants’ Health?

By Dianna Cooper
12:58, September 5th 2008
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According to a report released Wednesday by government experts, exposure to bisphenol-A, a chemical used in plastic baby bottles, may jeopardize babies’ health, leading to developmental problems. Until additional test won’t be carried out, organic compound can not be deemed safe.

Commonly known as BPA, bisphenol-A is a hormone-disrupting chemical used in many food and drink packaging applications, making plastic hard.

In April, when the National Toxicology Program released a draft report voicing concern about the chemical, a debate was started. Beginning that month, several important corporations, such as Wal-Mart and Babies “R” Us, stopped manufacturing products containing bisphenol A.

However, the plastics industry sustained that the chemical doesn’t induce toxicity in humans at typical levels of contact.
In its report, the U.S. government didn’t suggest the banning of bisphenol-A. It did say that additional research should be done in order to comprehend what are the effects the chemical has on human health.

“The possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed," said John Bucher, NTP Associate Director.
Revenues of U.S. makers are up to 7 billion pounds of BPA each year. A prohibition would have disastrous effects on thousands of businesses, Bloomberg reported.

Canada plans to forbid the use of bisphenol-A in baby bottles. Also, Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is supporting a bill to ban the chemical from children's products, and Edward Markey, a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, said he intended to prohibit it from all food and drink packaging, The Washington Post reported.

"The FDA's assurances of BPA's safety are out of step with mounting scientific evidence to the contrary," Markey asserted. "For the sake of the health of every man, woman and child in America, we should ban BPA in food and beverage containers, especially because there are alternatives already available," he said.



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