BPA // Current TV

Canadian officials deny science, declare BPA chemical 'safe' after first claiming it to be 'toxic'

Keeping up with the latest science regarding chemical safety is apparently of little or no concern to the Canadian government, which recently declared the highly-toxic plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) to be safe just two years after declaring it to be a toxin. In a report issued by Health Canada's Food Directorate, the agency has iterated its unfounded position that exposure to BPA in food packaging "is not expected to pose a health risk to the general population, including newborns and young children."

The announcement is curious as Canada was one of the first countries to question the safety of BPA back in 2008, right around the time that emerging science began to show that the chemical leeches out of containers and into food and drinks. A Canadian government panel at that time had determined that BPA is potentially linked to hyperactivity in children, breast and prostate cancers in adults, and birth defects in newborn babies, among other conditions, which led many product manufacturers to voluntarily phase out the use of BPA.

"Our science indicated that bisphenol-A may be harmful to both human health and the environment and we were the first country to take bold action in the interest of Canadians," said Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq in a statement back in 2010.

But in typical wishy-washy fashion, these same corporate-backed bureaucrats are now back-peddling by trying to claim that BPA is just fine, even for infants and babies. In complete denial of copious amounts of evidence showing that even low levels of exposure to BPA can cause organ damage, developmental disorders, reproductive damage and infertility, digestive dysfunction, DNA damage, endocrine disruption and many other conditions, Health Canada is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by blatantly kowtowing to the chemical industry.

Th U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also flip-flopped several times on the BPA issue, having recently banned BPA from children's drinking cups after vehemently denying a few years earlier that BPA was at all dangerous (http: //w ww . ny times. com). The positions on BPA held by both the Canadian and U.S. governments are dubious at best, and have led to much public confusion about the chemical....

Continued at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/037740_BPA_Health_Canada_toxic_chemicals.htmlKeeping up with the latest science regarding chemical safety is apparently of little... more

Dagum
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FDA rejects petition to ban BPA in food packaging

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it was denying a petition to... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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26 comments

DOW Chemical CEO tries to spin his way out of Bhopal issue on Australian ABC

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JanforGore
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9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda

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Sustainability commissioner/ethics advisor of 2012 London Olympics quits over DOW sponsorship

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JanforGore
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7 comments

Bayer leading producer of a toxic chemical

Taking aspirin may do more harm tha`n good, according to a study by the Political... more

JackHerer
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1 year ago
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1 comment

BPA Effects During Pregnancy

Women, who are exposed to BPA during their pregnancy term may notice some possible... more

pfguide
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1 year ago
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BPA Makes Little Girls Anxious and Depressed

A new study shows that girls who were exposed to chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) as fetuses are more highly prone to hyperactive, anxious, aggressive, and depressed behavior than boys of similar age. BPA, an estrogen-mimicking chemical used to harden plastic, is found in consumer products ranging widely from canned soups to baby bottles and grocery receipts. (MoJo's Kiera Butler's got the full rundown on BPA's health risks.)

The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, joins a mounting body of evidence linking BPA to various reproductive and developmental diseases. The study's authors tested urine samples of 244 mothers during pregnancy and at birth and of their children for the first three years. The urine tests showed BPA in 84 percent of the women's samples and in 96 percent of the children's, with indications that behavior problems in the girls rose with rising BPA levels. But while the study shows a strong correlation between behavioral change and BPA levels, its authors say more research is needed.

Meanwhile, other studies in recent years have linked BPA exposure to impaired thyroids, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, breast and prostate cancer, and infertility in both men and women. The Pediatrics study confirms two previous ones finding that prenatal exposure to BPA affects child behavior, and it's the first to demonstrate that BPA exposure prebirth may matter more than exposure postbirth, lead author Joe Braun told Bloomberg.

The growing case against BPA has motivated an increasing number of state legislators to ban the substance from certain consumer products. Earlier this month, California officially banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, joining 10 other states that have recently passed similar bills. Around the world, BPA is already outlawed in the European Union, Canada, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia.

The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees federal regulation over chemicals in the United States, does not support a ban on BPA. This, despite being heavily criticized by consumer advocacy groups and being sued for failing "to safeguard the food supply." In 2009 the Consumers Union warned of the health risks posed by BPA in food containers, basing its position on more than 200 different scientific studies. The FDA recognizes that the recent studies on BPA warrant reason for "some concern." But it ultimately argues that there are "substantial uncertainties" in the interpretation of the studies and says it is conducting its own research on the matter.

Marion Nestle, a nutrition, food, and public health professor at New York University, sums up the regulatory BPA debate neatly:

In the absence of compelling science, regulators have two choices: exercise the "precautionary principle" and ban [BPA] until it can be proven safe, or approve it until it can be shown to be harmful. The United States and European safety agencies—and the food industry, of course—prefer the latter approach.

It's not just about the science. Unsurprisingly, plastic and other industry lobbyists routinely call into question the methodology of studies condemning BPA use, as they did in this most recent case. The criticism makes sense given that industry groups have also been campaigning aggressively against state legislation banning BPA from certain consumer products. In California alone, the American Chemical Council (ACC) spent $9.4 million on lobbying since 2005, Greenwire reported earlier this month. And the money can be persuasive. Mother Jones reported last month that the Susan G. Komen foundation, a leading breast cancer research group, downplayed BPA's links to cancer around the time it was receiving funding from pro-BPA pharma companies.

Now that states are starting to move toward BPA bans despite industry opposition, groups like the ACC seem to be stepping up their game, making a new push for the FDA to have final say over BPA regulation. Of course, if federal jurisdiction were to override the emerging state-level bans, the FDA's inconclusive position on BPA as a public health threat would work well in the industry's favor.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/10/pediatrics-study-bpa-girls-depressionA new study shows that girls who were exposed to chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) as fetuses... more

Anonmaly
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Worldwide Hippies News Briefs Monday

Obama to announce actions on housing, student loans BPA in pregnant women might... more

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What DOW Chemical doesn't want you to know about your water

Earlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute a 60-second video for the Future We Create virtual conference on water sustainability the company launched yesterday. As a vocal advocate for strict regulation of toxic chemicals -- especially for food and farming -- I was surprised the company would approach me. Dow is the country's largest chemical maker, and profits handsomely from developing some of the world's most polluting products, many of which are widely used in industrial and consumer goods as well as agriculture.

In the video I submitted, which you can watch below, I stress that one of the greatest threats to clean water is chemical contaminants -- and that Dow Chemical has a long history of water pollution. The PR representative emailed to say "unfortunately we can't use your video," but that she would be happy to include me, still, if I would consider re-recording it. When we discussed what that would mean she said, no "fingerpointing"; they wanted a "positive, inclusive discussion."

I believe in inclusiveness and engagement, but I also believe we must pursue those principles within a context that is honest. To do otherwise is to participate in what is popularly called "greenwashing," painting a veneer of environmentalism on an otherwise unchanged product or practice -- a corporate strategy many of us are all too familiar with.

In this spirit, I felt it would be disingenuous to engage in a conversation about water sustainability, for a campaign paid for by Dow Chemical, without pointing out the direct relationship between Dow's core business products -- a source of its $8 billion in profit last year -- and toxins in our environment.

At the same time Dow launches this initiative, the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities who contend that their water has been polluted by the company, including from its hometown manufacturing plant in Midland, Mich. In 2007, the EPA detected the highest level of dioxin ever discovered in the country's rivers or lakes in waterways near Dow's global headquarters. Dioxin levels in some places were 1,000 times higher than the residential standard, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A recent study found women living in Midland, as well as Saginaw and Bay counties, have significantly higher rates of breast cancer; dioxin was to blame. A class action lawsuit is pending.

"In the backyard of Dow's corporate headquarters, the company for decades through philanthropy, public relations, and politics has made the choice to push back at every regulatory level instead of addressing their dioxin contamination of 52 miles of freshwater and Lake Huron," said Michelle Hurd Riddick of the Saginaw Bay grassroots environmental organization, Lone Tree Council. "The company has mastered the art of greenwashing while poisoning a whole watershed and getting away with it."

Community members in another Midland -- Midland, Texas -- filed suit earlier this year against Dow and three other companies for contaminating groundwater there with hexavalent chromium. Barred from use in the European Union because of its toxicity, hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen. The EPA's own hazard report notes that exposure, including through contaminated drinking water, "may produce effects on the liver, kidney, [and] gastrointestinal and immune systems."

Dow also continues to drag its heels and fight regulators in order to continue production of some of its most toxic and water-polluting products.

In 2000, for instance, the EPA announced it was phasing out approval of Dow's insecticide, and potent neurotoxin, Dursban, for new home construction in the United States because the product is linked to serious illnesses and even death in children. Five years later, the chemical was still in use in U.S. homes. And in 2003, Dow settled a $2 million lawsuit with the state of New York, the largest penalty ever in a pesticide-related case, for repeatedly violating an agreement about proper advertising of Dursban and making misleading safety claims.

Dow is also a leading manufacturer of Bisphenol-A (or BPA), used in numerous consumer products such as baby bottles, children's toys, and the linings of food cans. It's a particularly dangerous chemical, with proven toxicity even in low doses, especially in utero. The National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program has found the chemical may increase the risk of certain cancers and alter brain development. The chemical, a synthetic estrogen, has also been linked to reproductive and hormonal problems. New research is showing that a vast majority of Americans is exposed to low concentrations of BPA not only through consumer products, but from surface water, too.

More at the linkEarlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute... more

JanforGore
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Plastic Bottles,Canned Foods and Aluminum Cans contain Chemicals that Cause Cancer( Video)

Bisphenol A is now deeply imbedded in the products of modern consumer society, not... more

factoverfiction
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1 year ago
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Wake ‘N’ Bake 101: Inoculation

Parents worry about exposing their children to chemicals like BPA, but nobody knows... more

joeeddy
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2 years ago
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Money Kills ...

Better think twice before you spend you hard-earned cash this Holiday Season.

derk
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BPA May Inhibit Pregnancy

Exposure to the chemical BPA very early in life might make it hard to get pregnant... more

rodstradamus
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2 years ago
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5 comments

Weekly Mulch: What’s in Your Water? Nuclear Waste, Coal Slurries and Industrial Estrogen

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MediaConsortium
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Chemical found in plastic can cause sperm problem

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ashish_indiareport
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2 years ago
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Bisphenol A Now Linked to Male Infertility

A controversial chemical used for decades in the mass production of food containers... more

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2 years ago
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1 comment

Canada Steps Up BPA Action

Effective immediately, the chemical Bisphenol A is officially considered toxic in... more

joeeddy
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2 years ago
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Call to finally test impact of BPA (bisphenol A ) on humans

A 'gender-bending' chemical used in food containers, baby bottles and baked... more

ampersand
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2 years ago
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Cash Register Receipts and BPA

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/61740/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Cashiers... more

csmonut
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2 years ago
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