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Ban BPA!

Today, NRDC petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging. BPA, found in plastic polycarbonate bottles and metal containers, leaches from containers into food and poses a serious health risk, especially to infants and children. NRDC strongly disagrees with the draft FDA conclusion that current levels of exposure to BPA are safe for human consumption.

More than 93 percent of the general population has some BPA in their bodies. BPA is a hormone-disrupting chemical that has been associated with reproductive abnormalities and hormonal changes. In animal studies, exposure to the amount of the chemical that most people now have in their bodies causes a wide array of abnormalities. Research shows that everyday levels of BPA may be linked to reproductive abnormalities, prostate and breast cancer, neurological damage, insulin resistance and diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. New data evaluated by another federal agency - the National Toxicology Program - shows that BPA is a threat at lower levels than the FDA has concluded. The FDA based it's decision on just two industry-funded studies.

The lack of BPA safeguards is representative of the broken chemical regulation policy in the United States. Without a system for testing classes of chemicals, such as hormone disrupters, toxics are put on the market as consumer goods before they are fully tested for reproductive effects. BPA has been approved for use in food containers since the 1950s -- despite the dangers revealed in animal studies and the fact that a similar estrogen chemical was removed from the market because it caused cancer and infertility. The federal government has consistently failed to implement any protective regulatory framework for hormone-disrupting chemicals, despite recommendations from the scientific community since the early 1990s.

The FDA must prohibit BPA from use in human food and food packaging, including in can linings and in beverage containers like baby bottles. And the FDA should revoke all regulations permitting the use of any food additive that results in BPA becoming a component of food. Protecting children from BPA exposure shouldn't be parents' responsibility, the FDA should act to protect all Americans.


Download NRDC's fact sheet on bisphenol A (BPA) to learn more.	Avoid polycarbonate plastic, a polymer made with the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Polycarbonate is among the types of plastic marked with a number 7. See our guide to plastics.	Avoid acidic canned foods and canned soda. BPA is used to line the inside of metal food and soda cans and leaches from the can liner into the food. Cardboard brick cartons or glass jars are better options. Learn more...