Three states appeal directly to companies to avoid BPA in products

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey urged 11 U.S. baby-bottle and baby-formula companies to stop using the chemical bisphenol A in their products and packaging in order to protect kids from the chemical’s damaging effects. BPA has been found in the urine of 93 percent of Americans, and recent studies have linked the chemical to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Other studies have concluded that BPA can act as an endocrine disruptor and can leach into food via food containers. “I am alarmed by recent studies confirming that BPA leaches from [baby] products into the foods they hold,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) wrote to the companies. “The preventable release of a toxic chemical directly into the food we eat is unconscionable.” Despite the findings of such studies that BPA can be harmful, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has continued to claim that BPA poses no health threat and that “an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses.”