New bill would ban toxic BPA chemical from food packaging

Sarah Vogel

By Sarah Vogel
Sarah is the Vice President of EDF's Health program.
Published July 11, 2014 in Health \ Chemicals

A hotly debated chemical used in food plastics, Bisphenol A or BPA, is back in the policy spotlight.

This week, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass) joined Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Grace Meng (D-NY) to announce the Ban Poisonous Additives Act. The bill would outlaw the use of BPA from food packaging and require any BPA alternatives to undergo extensive review to avoid replacing one chemical with another that may pose just as many health risks.

This appears to be the case with a common BPA replacement in the same chemical class, Bisphenol S.

Low-dose exposure to BPA has been associated with a wide range of health effects such as behavioral problems; prostate, breast and liver cancer as well as obesity.

A study released just last week demonstrated how low dose exposure to BPA during fetal development can alter gene expression in the mammary gland of female rats, resulting in abnormal development of the breast and increased susceptibility to breast cancer later in life.

Read my full blog post here.