Mental Health

FDA Bans BPA from Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups

By Staff Reporter | Update Date: Jul 17, 2012 03:00 PM EDT

Nine months after the American Chemistry Council made a request to have the Bisphenol-a chemical banned in baby products, federal regulators announced on Tuesday that baby bottles and sippy cups can no longer contain the chemical.

The American Chemistry Council is the chemical industry's chief association.

BPA has been said to disrupt hormones and trigger a host of unhealthy changes in children and adults, including cancer, obesity and developmental/reproductive problems.

"Consumers can be confident that these products do not contain BPA," FDA spokesman Allen Curtis said in a statement, adding that the regulatory decision was based on the bottle industry's phase out of the chemical. "The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food."

However, some members of Congress have already introduced some bills calling to ban BPA nationwide in all canned food, water bottles and food containers.

However, chemical manufacturers still maintain that the organic compound used to harden plastic products, is safe for all food and drink uses.

BPA has been used since the 1960s to make hard plastic bottles, cups for toddlers and the linings of food and beverage cans, including those used to hold infant formula and soda. Until recently, it was used in baby bottles, but major manufacturers are now making bottles without it. Plastic items containing BPA are generally marked with a 7 on the bottom for recycling purposes.

According to the New York Times, "the chemical can leach into food, and a study of over 2,000 people found that more than 90 percent of them had BPA in their urine. Traces have also been found in breast milk, the blood of pregnant women and umbilical cord blood."

Canada, Chicago and Suffolk County, N.Y., have already banned BPA from children's products. The Food and Drug Administration is currently spending $30 million to determine its effect on humans.

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