Infant Formula Makers and Canned Food Producers Called On To Remove BPA

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Infant Formula Makers and Canned Food Producers Called On To Remove BPA

_http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15434.cfm_

(http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15434.cfm)

Environmental Working Group, via Common Dreams, October 31, 2008

 

 

WASHINGTON - October 31 - In the wake of an FDA advisory panel*s devastating

rebuke of the agency*s safety assessment for the toxic plastics chemical

bisphenol A (BPA) Environmental Working Group (EWG) has written North America*s

leading infant formula manufacturers and canned food producers urging them to

take immediate steps to remove BPA from canned infant formula and other

canned foods.

 

BPA, discovered in the 1930*s to be a synthetic estrogen, is a component of

plastic resins that leach from can linings into food. Liquid formula is the

biggest culprit in exposing infants to a toxic hormone-disrupting chemical,

but kid-friendly foods like canned chicken noodle soup and ravioli also have

high levels of BPA,** said EWG Senior Analyst Sonya Lunder. **BPA was initially

used as a sex hormone. It should never have been allowed to come into

contact with infant formula.**

 

**The evidence is overwhelming that FDA has been the industry's lapdog,**

Lunder said. **Manufacturers must immediately repackage formula and canned food

to remove this chemical, shown by many studies to cause brain and

reproductive system damage in crucial stages of development.** A 2007

Environmental

Working Group survey _http://www.ewg.org/reports/infantformula_

(http://www.ewg.org/reports/infantformula) of the four leading makers of

liquid formula sold

in North America found that all used BPA-based epoxy resin coating to line

their formula cans. These included Nestlé (Good Start), Ross-Abbot (Similac and

Isomil), MeadJohnson (Enfamil), and PBM (maker of store-brand formulas sold

at Target, Kroger and dozens of other retailers).

 

An EWG research report, Toxic Plastics Chemical in Infant Formula

_http://www.ewg.org/reports/bpaformula_ (http://www.ewg.org/reports/bpaformula)

,

concluded that infants fed exclusively on canned ready-to-eat formula are

exposed

to unsafe levels of BPA and that one in 16 babies on liquid formula are

exposed to doses exceeding those that caused damage in laboratory animals.

 

EWG found that infants fed liquid formula, which can make up their total

diet for the first six months of life, suffered the greatest exposures to the

toxin. EWG calculations show that babies should not be fed liquid formula sold

in metal cans. Powdered formula or liquid types sold in plastic containers

are BPA-free options. In a second study, also in 2007, EWG laboratory tests

found BPA in 20 out of 30 brands of canned food, amounting to more than half

of the cans of foods tested. One to three servings per day of foods found to

be highly contaminated, including chicken soup and ravioli, could expose an

infant, child or a pregnant woman to BPA at levels that have caused serious

harm in animal studies. Food brands found to contain BPA were B & M, Bush*s Best,

Campbell*s Chunky, Campbell*s Spaghettios, Campbell*s Swanson, Chef

Boyardee, Chicken of the Sea, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, Dole, Ensure, Green Giant,

Kroger

store brand, Libby*s, Nestle Carnation, Pepsi-Cola, Progresso, S & W,

Slim-Fast and Wolfgang Puck.

 

In a strongly worded report released Tuesday, the FDA Science Board*s BPA

subcommittee concluded that an internal FDA assessment of BPA contained a

number of serious scientific flaws and significantly underestimated the health

risks of BPA.

 

Much of the scientific research on BPA has focused on damage to the

developing brains and bodies of fetuses and infants, but some recent studies

have

linked the toxin to diabetes and heart disease in adults. Earlier this week, a

new study _http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/11788/abstact.html_

(http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/11788/abstact.html) published by

Environmental Health

Perspectives found that BPA rendered breast cancer cells resistant to

chemotherapy treatment. EWG*s analysis of the FDA Science Board BPA

subcommittee

report and its concerns about BPA contamination of infant formula can be found

here. _http://www.ewg.org/node/27316_ (http://www.ewg.org/node/27316)

 

NOTE: Text of the letters from EWG president Ken Cook to the CEOs of major

food companies and infant formula manufacturers are below. The individual,

signed copies will be available online soon.

 

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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses

the power of information to protect human health and the environment.

 

 

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