Get Serious About BPA

Evidence continues to mount that the controversial chemical bisphenol A isn't safe and that the government hasn't been upfront about the dangers. The latest news: an international consortium of scientists rejects the government's use of two studies that found BPA to be safe for humans.

The findings, which will be released in a few weeks, should provide more momentum for congressional efforts to ban the chemical.

BPA is found in thousands of household products, including food containers, and is used to line most food and beverage cans. The chemical has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of Americans tested. It has been linked in independent studies to a host of ailments, including cancer.

But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has relied on two studies, funded by a trade association for makers of BPA, to find that the chemical was safe.

The consortium, meeting in Germany, has rejected that finding as incomplete and unreliable, according to Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust, who have interviewed scientists who attended the meeting.

The consortium calls for a broader look at the chemical. It plans to release a statement in the next few weeks.

The FDA's judgment has been flawed for months on this issue, which is why Congress has begun to act. Bills were introduced in both houses of Congress last month that would ban the chemical from all food and beverage containers. We think it should, at minimum, ban BPA from any product intended for children. At the consortium meeting in Germany last month, scientists agreed that the best evidence shows that newborns have between three and 11 times more BPA in their systems than do adults.

It's time to get serious about this form of household pollution. It's time to ban BPA.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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