Congress Waking Up On BPA?

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg relating to the possible dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in consumer products and food product containers, particularly in infant formula containers and other items used by infants and children.  Chairmen Waxman and Stupak asked Commissioner Hamburg to reconsider the FDA's conclusion under the Bush Administration that BPA is safe at current estimated exposure levels.

"It is critical that we know for certain whether BPA is safe to use in consumer products and food product containers," said Chairman Waxman.  "We need to make sure that FDA thoroughly and fairly reviews the best science on BPA so that the public - and especially infants and children - are protected."

Much new information has come out about BPA since FDA's decision last year, and none of it has been kind to the chemical and plastics industry.  Nor, for that matter, has it been kind to FDA.  Let's hope the new administration straightens things out on this.

Rep. Stupak also expressed concern about the Bush Administration FDA's interactions with industry during the approval process and beyond, while both Reps. Waxman and Stupak sent a document request to the North American Metal Packaging Alliance regarding the fear and smear tactics they are reported to be planning to use in their upcoming PR counterattack.

Here are the letters [pdf] sent to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and to the world's leading BPA cheerleader, NAMPA Chairman Dr. John Rost.

BPA Trade Association: Bringing Poison To Americans

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

The committee doubts social media outlets, such as Facebook or Twitter, will work for positive BPA outreach.

Yeah, because we do tend not to advocate for things that sicken and kill us.  Our bad.  But anyways...

The committee wants to focus on quality instead of quantity in disseminating messages (e.g. a young kid or pregnant mother providing a positive quote about BPA, a testimonial from an outside expert, providing positive video, advice from third party experts, and relevant messaging on the GMA website). Members noted traditional media outreach has become too expensive (they have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars) and the media is starting to ignore their side. The committee doubts obtaining a scientific spokesperson is attainable.

Now why do you think that might be?

As always, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is right on top of this as well...

I try not to use the religiously-tinged word "evil" in my writings, but the BPA Gang now indisputably deserves that moniker.  Much more below the fold...

Book Review: "Exposed"

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri May 29, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

Schapiro takes a look at each of the regulatory approaches favored by both the European Union and the United States when it comes to substances ranging from BPA to GMOs to the chemicals in children's toys and cosmetics and beyond, and concludes that, like it or not, product innovation necessitated by Europe's adoption of the precautionary principle leads to not only safer products for people in the European Union, but is also creating a significant competitive advantage for companies overseas over their American competitors, as more and more of the world simply refuses to take the same leap of faith Americans must unfortunately currently take when it comes to new chemicals and substances being rushed onto the market and introduced into our bodies without sufficient prior testing to ensure they won't harm us.  For just one recent example, as we're all seeing with BPA now, it's becoming clearer by the day that the current American laissez-faire approach to environmental regulation does not, and will not, work.

More below the fold...

Sampler Platter 05.22.09

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 22, 2009 at 22:08:08 PM PDT

• Hard plastic drinking bottles leach the endocrine disruptor BPA. So says a Harvard study. Let me remind you that there is an anti-BPA bill in Congress right now, cleverly named the Ban Poisonous Additives (BPA) Act. Write your Congresscritters to ask them to co-sponsor it!

• Really, I just like the title of this one: The House Aghghghghg! Committee. That's exactly how I feel about the House Ag Committee and it's asshat chairman, Rep. Peterson (D-MN). As Tom Philpott puts it, Peterson is declaring Waxman-Markey is mine, all mine. He wants to derail the Waxman-Markey climate change bill unless the EPA stops using sound science to assess the environmental impacts of ethanol. Of course, if you listen to what Public Citizen has to say about the current state of Waxman-Markey, it might be so watered down already that Peterson isn't really making much of a threat.

• Here is a really brilliant point: How many people out there pay the equivalent of $10/gal for bottled water (which is free from the tap) and then say they can't afford organic milk?

• Civil Eats takes a fantastic look at how farmworkers are treated. A Slow Food chapter actually highlighted the issue by going as a group to have lunch with some farmworkers. What a great idea!

• I am very curious about the film The Garden, about the fight to preserve South Central LA's community garden. It sounds absolutely amazing. If you haven't gotten a chance to see it yet, read a Q&A with the director here.

• Farmer Carol Ann talks about whether small farming can feed the world.

• Lucky Massachusetts residents now live in the only state that has gay marriage AND calorie labeling on menus at chain restaurants.

• Very sad but true graphic: Your waistline in charts.

• This picture just drives me nuts. It's a supermarket trying to pretend its a farmers market. Sort of.

• Well holy shit. Did you hear about the salmonella/pistachio recall? Turns out Rep. Dennis Cardoza was one of the victims. So that means that at least ONE member of Congress REALLY GETS IT about the need to update food safety laws.

FDA: "Mess With BPA, and You're Messing With Us!"

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed May 20, 2009 at 18:16:55 PM PDT

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's deputy director sought information from the BPA industry's chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

"I'd like to get information together that our chemists could look at to determine if there are problems with that data in advance of possibly reviewing the study," Mitchell Cheeseman, deputy director of the FDA's center for food safety and applied nutrition, said in an e-mail seeking advice from Steven Hentges, executive director of the trade association's BPA group.

Wow.  I am speechless here, honestly.  I think I'm kinda known for being pretty cynical on these issues, but even I didn't believe something like that was possible...

Bisphenol A is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible.  Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.

More below the fold...

Sampler Platter 05.13.09

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT

• The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills, telling the company to stop promoting Cheerios as a health food.  (For a funny take on the Right Wing blogosphere's outrage (grrrr!) at FDA's "attack" on America cereal, see here.)  Meanwhile, Health Canada unfortunately seems to want to make it easier for food manufacturers to be able to market junk as "health food" in their country...

• Elementary school students are snacking on (and learning about) healthy local produce in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Can't say this is really a surprise - from Grist, Monsanto is now firing off their propaganda on National Petrol, errrrr, National Public Radio.  Great article debunking Monsanto's claims, but it's not like the oil companies, ADM and other corporate interests haven't already been scrubbing themselves "clean" in their own greenshowers over the airwaves of NPR for years and years and years...

• Fantastic article from Ken Olsen at High Country News on the intersection of agriculture, business, politics, power and salmon - and what government ultimately needs to do to help restore wild salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.

More below the fold...  

Sampler Platter 05.08.09

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri May 08, 2009 at 17:07:34 PM PDT

• Tomorrow, May 9 is the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the largest annual single-day food drive in the US.  I don't have much myself these days, but I'm going to leave out my little bag with a couple cans of Eden Organic kidney beans by my mailbox for tomorrow morning.  You can find out how to help here; and as always, Feeding America can use your donations or help you find a local volunteer opportunity here.

• Over at Civil Eats, Kerry Trueman interviews James Howard Kunstler.

• Deborah Lehmann takes a look at the school food bills currently in the US House and Senate.

• The Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project, a local foods project here in Oregon started up in 2008 by Harry MacCormack, a long-time Corvallis organic farmer and co-founder of Oregon Tilth, is working towards convincing conventional large-scale grass-seed growers to transition towards growing beans and grains organically for local markets.

• Not quite sure what to make of this, but Oprah's KFC promotion didn't quite seem to work out well for anybody involved...

• Wow - the Texas State Legislature has joined New York and California in banning the use of trans fats by restaurants.  Also, Minnesota today officially banned the use of BPA in plastic baby bottles and cups.

• Cognitive dissonance reigns in Ken Salazar's Interior Department, at least regarding the now-officially-listed-as-threatened polar bear.  The American Petroleum Institute is cheered by today's ruling, however...

Study Released On Food Company Use Of BPA

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sat May 02, 2009 at 15:02:38 PM PDT

The study included pretty much every major publicly-traded packaged foods manufacturer from what I can tell; however, it did not include small manufacturers or companies like Eden Foods, which currently only uses BPA in cans containing its tomato products.

The report finds that all companies surveyed use BPA, and only one company currently uses a BPA-alternative in some of its canned items.  The highest scoring company received a "C" overall, with the number 2 company receiving a "C-" and all others receiving a "D+" or lower.  Thirteen of the twenty companies (including the six who refused to respond) received "F"s.

More below the fold...

Wednesday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed Apr 15, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT

• Two pieces from the LA Times: one on the connection between fast food and happiness in children (as the commenter says: of course there's a connection!  The stuff acts like a drug...); and another on the increasing sexualization of fast food advertising.

• Connecticut is now one step closer to banning the sale of plastic baby bottles, food containers and cups containing the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a.  The measure, which would also require warning labels on all food products sold in packaging containing BPA, unanimously passed a state legislative committee on Tuesday.  Connecticut would be the first state to pass such a ban.  Oregon, California, Hawaii and a handful of other states are also currently considering such legislation.

• A piece about a different BPA:  from High Country News, an investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration's influence on salmon research in the Columbia Basin.

• The volunteer work of a pair of law students working out of a Lewis & Clark Law School-based environmental nonprofit helped lead to this week's criminal sentencing of a Washington fish processing plant for spewing "chemically rendered chicken goo" into the Columbia River in violation of the Clean Water Act.

• A nice piece on a Washington family's mission-oriented worm raising business.

• Some good wildlife news from Alaska: the populations of two caribou herds in the state have recently jumped significantly.  The downside is that two other nearby herds are decreasing in numbers.

• Two pieces from Civil Eats: the Berkeley (CA) Farmers' Market has become the first market in the nation to eliminate all plastic bags AND plastic packaging; and Part 2 of a great interview with Gary Nabhan.

Sunday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 14:55:03 PM PDT

• A bill currently in the Montana State Legislature, referred to by some as the Water Theft Bill, would allow gas companies more control over water pumped out of coalbed methane wells.  The magnificent trick by which this would be accomplished is in the bill's defining the water source as the (apparently magical) company's pipes, rather than the underground aquifers from which the pipes draw the water.

• An article in the Portland Mercury looks at the state of our school lunch program and the Farm to School Bill, HB 2800, which is currently in the Oregon State Legislature.

• The deadly infection that has been decimating bat populations in New York and New England for the past couple of years has spread into caves in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.  Bats are important pollinators and play a vital role in pest control.

• In good wildlife news: the City of Vancouver, BC has embarked on a project aimed at restoring the urban bee population, and Pacific herring are once again spawning in a once-toxic British Columbia creek.

• Yes, Virginia, Utah's odd liquor laws are finally changing!  A nice piece on home brewing from Ed Quillen...

• After a conference in Germany last month, an international consortium of industry, academic and government scientists will soon come out strongly against the FDA's assertion that the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a is "safe".

• If you're near Flemington, NJ on Saturday April 18th - stop by one of my old favorite market / delis, and celebrate Earth Day and Basil Bandwagon Natural Market's 16th anniversary with "Your Local Earth Fair'' from 10 am to 4 pm.  There will also be a pledge challenge in support of the fantastic Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance.

Boston Globe Op-Ed On BPA

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 11:30:00 AM PDT

BPA was originally synthesized in 1891; in the 1930s it was considered for pharmaceutical use because of its estrogenic properties but was abandoned when diethylstilbestrol (DES) was found to be a more potent synthetic estrogen. DES was prescribed to at least 2 million women to prevent miscarriage under the assumption that during pregnancy "some estrogen is good, so more must be better." By 1971, girls exposed to DES in the womb had developed an extremely rare vaginal cancer typically found in elderly women. This caused the Food and Drug Administration to ban its use by pregnant women.

Bill Introduced To Ban BPA

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 13:07:00 PM PDT

The move came a day after Sunoco, the gas and chemical company, sent word to investors that it is now refusing to sell bisphenol A, known as BPA, to companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3. The company told investors that it cannot be certain of the chemical compound's safety. Last week, six baby-bottle manufacturers, including Playtex and Gerber, announced that they will stop using BPA in bottles.

Note the bolded part.  That's where we have to go next - can we actually take the next step (as Europe has), and test chemicals before they're introduced for widespread use in common everyday products?

BPA is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible.  Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.

Tests have found toxic levels of the chemical in products, including those marked as "microwave safe."

The amounts detected were at levels that have caused neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands.

What is the definition of "microwave safe", btw?

Here's the link to my last BPA piece here.  I'll try to find the text of these bills and update with links when possible.

Update: I found the legislation, links and summary below the fold...

Friday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 19:25:09 PM PST

• Under growing public pressure, six major companies will stop selling hard plastic baby bottles containing the dangerous industrial chemical BPA; in a major victory for human beings, and the first of what will hopefully be many losses for pseudo-scientific shills who place corporate profits over human health.

• In other BPA news, recent tests have found the toxic hormone-mimicking substance exists in at least 96% of soft drinks tested in Canada -

  Dr. vom Saal says there is also a growing body of scientific literature, based on animal experiments, that has found harmful effects due to BPA at concentrations up to 1,000 times below Health Canada's safety limit.

• The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will vote Saturday on a proposal urging cities and towns across Canada to ban sale of bottled water within / on municipal facilities and properties.

• Vancouver, BC's City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to allow urban backyard chickens, and hopefully soon a group of citizens of Salem, Oregon will be able to overturn that city's current ban as well.

• A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, published in the journal Bioscience, concludes that the greatest threat to Northwest salmon are invasive species -

  The study, which was published in the journal Bioscience, is sure to be controversial because much of the Northwest's multi-billion dollar salmon recovery work is centered on improving habitat, mitigating the damage of power-producing dams and curtailing commercial or recreational fishing.

  This report argues the greatest threat to fish are non-native species like crappie or bass that can eat up juvenile salmon as the make their way downstream from their birthplace to the ocean.

New State Food Laws in the Works

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Mar 04, 2009 at 15:30:00 PM PST

• Maine and Maryland might join California, New York City, Portland, OR, and Philadelphia labeling calories on menus! (See a second article on Maryland here)

• Maryland might also ban trans fats.

• And Maryland might also ban artificial food dyes that cause behavior problems and hyperactivity in children. (Tom Laskawy has more info on the effects of artificial food dyes here and IATP has its own comments here)

• Natasha Chart writes about a number of victories for Wisconsin farmers in Gov. Doyle's budget this year.

• Suffolk County, NY banned BPA from us in baby bottles and sippy cups.

  Consumers Union has repeatedly called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban BPA materials in infant and children's products and food and beverage contact containers, as FDA already has enough scientific data to support such a decision. Several states, such as Oregon, Washington and California, and cities, such as Chicago, are also considering BPA bans as the FDA continues to research BPA, while allowing the product to remain on the market. In 2008, the Canadian government banned its use in baby bottles.

  BPA-a chemical found in the linings of cans and in many plastic products, including sports bottles, food-storage containers and baby bottles-has potential links to a wide range of health effects. BPA has been linked to a variety of diseases including an increased risk of diseases or disorders of the brain, reproductive, and immune systems; recent studies have linked BPA exposure to problems with liver function testing, an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, and interruptions in chemotherapy treatment; and BPA exposure has long been linked to hormonal disturbances. A study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has shown that 93% of Americans excrete some BPA in their urine. New studies also show that BPA seems to stay in the body longer than previously believed.

• And in California, the reorganized "Food and Agriculture Committee" in the state Senate has a chair who supports animal rights and consumer causes. Crazy! The San Diego Union-Tribune called this "a blow to agriculture, which for years has counted on the panel to thwart unfriendly bills."

  "Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, the new chairman, has a history of tangling with agriculture over food safety. He plans an oversight hearing next week to explore livestock welfare issues."

  The article noted that, "Lawmakers and animal rights advocates say they are motivated to be more aggressive this year, particularly after voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 2 - an initiative that requires egg producers to provide hens more space by 2015.

  "'It sent a signal that Californians are ready for and are demanding humane treatment of animals, whether they are farm animals or companion animals,' said Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara."

Bisphenol A Back in the News

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Feb 01, 2009 at 03:03:41 AM PST

Recapping the news from earlier this week, a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester (NY) has found that BPA exposure is possible through means other than just food containers, and that the chemical remains in our bodies longer than previously thought -

While the belief had been BPA was quickly and completely eliminated from the body through urine, this study found people who had fasted for even a whole day still had significant levels of the chemical.

Stahlhut said this suggested BPA may hang around in the body longer than previously known or that it may get into the body through sources other than just food, perhaps including tap water or house dust. Stahlhut added that BPA may get into fat tissue, from where it might be released more slowly.

More below the fold...