Retail giant Wal-Mart announced Wednesday that it was immediately halting sales of baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, food containers and water bottles made with BPA in its Canadian stores. Wal-Mart has sold BPA-free baby bottles for several years alongside those containing the controversial chemical. However, for the first time the retailer ditched its BPA-containing baby bottle stock completely.

"We are working hard to expand our BPA-free offerings," Wal-Mart representative Nick Agarwal wrote in an e-mail to the Washington Post.

Wal-Mart's announcement comes days after a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Program has raised concerns again about plastic bottles. As it turns out, plastic baby bottles have been shown to contain a dangerous chemical called bisphenol A, a synthetic hormone which may cause infertility, cancer and hormonal imbalances in children.

Also, Nalgene will phase out production of its Outdoor line of polycarbonate containers that include BPA over the next several months, the company announced in a statement.

“With 10 different product lines in several different materials, we have the largest bottle offering on the market today. By eliminating containers containing BPA from our consumer product mix, our customers can have confidence that their needs are being met,” said Steven Silverman, general manager of the Nalgene business, in a press statement.

Bisphenol A is a synthetic hormone that has been shown to leach out of a certain type of plastic when heated, endangering the health of consumers. Hard polycarbonate plastic is used in baby bottles, toddler cups, water bottles and other recipients.

Chemists from The Food and Drug Administration have analyzed formula cans last year and found no evidence of BPA harming young children in small doses. They concluded that infants would have to ingest over 7,000 times more formula than they do in a day to do any harm. Therefore, the health agency does not plan any ban or limitations on the use of BPA in formula cans.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic compound used as a building block to several important polymers and polymer additives. To some degree, it mimics estrogen. Bisphenols have also been used as antioxidants in cosmetics and foods. San Francisco banned it in products for young children effective December 2006, but the ban was not enforced and was taken back in May 2007.