Margaret Hamburg, MD, chief of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has agreed to review data on bisphenol A (BPA), a common ingredient in the plastic bottles used for baby formulas, water and other popular beverages, as well as the cans used for packaging food.  One mission of the new review is to determine whether the current safety limit is adequate or if the chemical’s safety, in general, should be reconsidered instead.  A number of developmental defects in infants and young children and some cancers and cardiovascular disease have been linked to BPA exposure.

State representatives Bart Stupak and Henry Waxman, of Michigan and California, respectively, issued a letter to Hamburg which urged a new safety assessment of the chemical, which has been banned in baby products in Canada and Minnesota, with other states debating similar bans.  In addition to the safety of BPA, the representatives’ letter also asked for an investigation of the role played by the plastics manufacturing industry when the FDA ruled the chemical safe last year.  Stupak is head of the federal Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and Waxman chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In 2008, the FDA drafted a BPA evaluation that claimed evidence was too insufficient to conclusively connect BPA, at the levels it’s currently used, with health issues, including suspected health issues that affect infants.  The FDA assessment was based entirely on just two studies, both funded by the American Plastics Council, an industry trade organization that represents the manufacturers of BPA-laced products.

The assessment drew the ire of a board of independent FDA scientific advisors that claimed faulty science was behind the assessment, including undue influence from the industry groups with the most to gain from BPA’s continued use.

The two representatives also wrote to John Rost, chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, asking for a list of attendees of the April/May 2009 meeting of the BPA Joint Trade Association.  The food manufacturing industry uses metal cans lined with BPA-containing plastic for almost all the canned goods sold in the United States.  News reports of the meeting say one item on the agenda was a discussion of ‘ways to block restrictions on BPA.’

Several consumer advocate groups and prominent members of the medical science community say BPA, chemically similar to the sex hormone, estrogen, is thought to contribute to health issues that range from cardiovascular disease, cancer, early onset of puberty, defects in the prostate and urinary tract, and behavioral issues in children.