Medical toxicologist calls for his state to regulate BPA

Posted on Mar 01, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Products, Research

Pediatrician and medical toxicologist is particularly concerned about the relatively high levels of BPA found in infants and young children, as they cannot metabolize BPA as effectively as adults.

In an op-ed at the Hartford Courant, Dr. Carl R. Baum, pediatrician and medical toxicologist at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, calls for the state govenrment of Connecticut to step in an regulate bisphenol A (BPA) because the US Food and Drug Administration is dragging its heels. For years, Dr. Baum points out, independent scientists and health professionals have warned about the hormone-disrupting properties of this now-ubiquitous substance made by the chemical industry for use in consumer products, including baby bottles and food-container linings

Dr. Baum directs the Center for Children’s Environmental Toxicology.

Despite hundreds of animal studies that link the chemical bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA, to serious health effects, the federal Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it would continue to study the matter rather than take regulatory action. The National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health, however, has “some concern” for effects on the brain, behavior and prostate gland in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures to BPA. Canada’s counterpart to the FDA, Health Canada, has taken regulatory action already.

I find even the possibility of risk to children from BPA exposure too great to ignore. This year, the General Assembly and Gov. M. Jodi Rell should step into this regulatory void and write children a prescription for prevention to chemical exposure.

As a first step, they can order an end to the use of BPA in food containers such as baby bottles and for can linings, along with other children’s products, and require the use of substitutes that are known to be inert and safe. A bill that would require phasing out products using BPA is being brought to a hearing Monday at 11 a.m. in the Legislative Office Building.

Link to Dr. Baum’s full op-ed at the Hartford Courant.