FDA to reassess toxin in cans, plastic - San Francisco Business Times:

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The coalition sent a letterf to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg onJune 22, reiterating concerns abouft the safety of the also known as BPA. Bay Area memberd of the national coalition include theSan Francisco-based Catholic Healthcaree West hospital network, San Francisco’s As You Sow nonprofitr “corporate accountability” advocacy group, Oakland’sd JOLT Catholic Coalition for Responsible Investing, and Harrington a Napa-based socially responsible investmeng group. Other signers included representatives of Catholic Healthcarre Eastin Pennsylvania, Boston’s Trillium Asseg Management, Seattle’s Northwest Coalition for Responsible and New York’s .
BPA is known to leach from can liningsw into foodand beverages, and has been founfd in the urine of more than 90 percent of Americand tested by the , the coalition said in a statementt released earlier this Despite evidence linking the chemical to cancer, developmental damage and heart disease in animals, it said, the FDA previouslyg had maintained that the substance is “As investors, we’re concernede that the use of BPA, particularly in food and beveragde packaging, may threaten shareholder said Emily Stone of Boston’s Green Centuryh Capital Management, the investment advisoryu firm that organized the letter to That letter, signed by 27 investors, advisor companies, foundations and shareholder advocacyh groups, urged the FDA to ensure that it uses “sound unbiased science” to assess BPA.
Michael associate director at As You Sow responsiblde for its corporate socialresponsibility program, told the San Francisco Businesws Times that As You Sow and Green Century have been leadin g the national effort, and noted that six majoe U.S. baby-bottle manufacturers have announcex they are phasing out BPA in products sold The FDA has come under fire from including its ownscientific subcommittee, for depending heavily on industry-supplied data in its priof evaluations of BPA’s safety, the grouop said. Opponents, of course, have a very different take. Elizabethn Whelan, president of the and Health, wrote a June 23 op-ed for Forbes.
cok arguing that BPA is the “toxibn du jour” of environmental activists who claim itcauses “everythinb from cancer to learning disabilities and even The American Council on Science and Healtnh describes itself as an independent consumer education consortium concerned with food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle and the environmenty and health, but the group’s web site says it’z funded in part by industry groups, corporations and trade associations.
Whelan said the chemical has been used safelty for roughly 60 years to make plastic bottles hardand shatter-proof, in coatings on meta l food containers and in cell phones and medicap devices, and contends that some advocacy groupas are ignoring science and giving way to hysteria on the subject. Even so, a numbee of jurisdictions, including Connecticut, Minnesota and Chicago, have takenm steps to ban or limit useof BPA.