AUGUSTA, Maine — The debate over the chemical bisphenol-A continued Tuesday as groups released competing claims about the additive’s health effects, and one baby food manufacturer insisted its products are BPA-free.
During a press event at the State House, members of the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine as well as Mainely Moms and Dads formally announced plans to petition the Board of Environmental Protection to ban BPA in containers of infant formula and baby or toddler food. Maine banned BPA in reusable beverage containers sold in the state starting Jan. 1.
Some medical studies have suggested links between BPA and learning disabilities, reproductive problems, cancer and obesity, although manufacturers and the chemical industry insist the additive is safe.
“Every time I use the can opener or pop open a jar of baby food or pasta sauce I’m serving up a dose of BPA to my family,” Erica Harris, a mother of two from Gray, said in a statement. “We need to get BPA out of all food packaging to keep our food from being contaminated with this unwanted poison.”
The Environmental Health Strategy Center also released the results of tests they said found BPA in 11 of 12 containers of baby food from Maine that were tested as well as in all three cans of canned food marketed to children.
But the popular baby food manufacturer Beech-Nut, which was one of two companies accused by the center of failing to report the use of BPA, refuted those claims Tuesday and insisted the additive is no longer used in its packaging.
“Nothing is more important to Beech-Nut than the quality and safety of our products,” Beech-Nut said in a statement sent to the Bangor Daily News. “Since October 2011, all Beech-Nut baby and toddler food packaging has been produced without BPA-containing material. This was communicated by Beech-Nut to Maine state officials in November 2011. Reports stating otherwise are incorrect.”
Samantha DePoy-Warren, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said Beech-Nut had sent a letter to the DEP saying their food does not contain “intentionally added” BPA. But Maine’s law requires reporting if the product packaging contains BPA, which can then leach into food. So department staff have prepared a “letter of warning” saying they need additional information from Beech-Nut.
“We need clarification that their food packaging does not contain BPA,” DePoy-Warren said.
The Maine Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, joined the debate by accusing the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine of making “misleading accusations” about a chemical that some governmental organizations have deemed to be safe.
“The Department of Environmental Protection is currently on the right course to make sure that Maine is both a healthy and a prosperous place to live,” Ben Gilman, senior governmental affairs specialist with the state chamber, said in a statement. “Instead of being pressured into following agenda that is not supported by the facts, we believe the department should stay focused on making the improvements to the Kids-Safe Products Act that won bipartisan support from the Legislature last year and included input from industry and the environmental community.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is facing a March 31 deadline to decide whether to ban BPA due to health concerns, under a recent court settlement between the agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Other governmental agencies have offered mixed views on BPA.
The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have said they have “some concern” about BPA’s effects on fetuses, children and infants at current exposure levels through food and the environment but that more research is needed.
The European Food Safety Authority, meanwhile, has deemed as safe the level of exposure to BPA encountered through food. And the World Health Organization has said enacting regulatory restrictions on the chemical would be premature at this point.
LePage may think it’s ok for babies to grow little beards also.
BPA in women causes PCOS or Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. The little cysts on the surface of the ovary manufacture large amounts of testosterone 24/7. The testosterone causes the woman to gain fat on the belly, have wide shoulders, little or no hips, weight under the chin, and to grow facial hair. So the xenoestrogen BPA causes women to become very high in testosterone, and LePage had it right. The people behind LePage know what’s happening, and they told him.
They must have forgot to tell him about the damage estrogen mimicing chemicals like BPA can do to a developing fetus (isn’t LePage pro-life) and to newborns and young children.
One of the biggest sources of BPA is thermal cash register receipts, such as found at most stores. Even stores which do not sell BPA products, are distributing it at their cash registers.
The LePage administration has a plan for this. Discounts on razors.
Thousands of chemicals, food additives, pesticides, herbicides, etc are brewed up and served to us by the industry without testing of any sort. When found to be unhealthy it’s always a struggle to have them removed from use. We’ve become the test rats.
Raised a large family never bought a jar of baby food. Why can’t these Mom just not buy the overpriced crap in a jar.
The point is not why can’t mom make her own baby food but why is it ok to put a chemical that is dangerous to humans in our food supply.
It is not more important to make a little bit more money by using a cheaper more dangerous chemical. Europe has banned BPA in it’s food supply since2005 or longer and they stillhave canned foods that are no more expansive they they were before the ban on BPA.
Business profits are not more important than our health and the health of our children.
I agree, some people just do not have time with busy working schedules and multiple children. I made my son’s babyfood, but I am lucky to have been afforded the time to do so.
But b the same reasoning, why can’t the manufacturers make baby food without the inclusion of a known toxin?
The Child Protection Act title 22, chapter 1071, would be used against any parent who gave poison to their children, and they would lose their children in court.
Children are being abused by feeding them poison and lawmakers and Attorneys General pretend not to notice. BPA is a very harmful chemical.
Protect the children, uphold the law.
Take her kid in the picture then it’s chewing on laminated poster board full of chemicals!
….
Quit whining and make your own baby food like I do. Its a heck of a lot cheaper (i suspect however many dont care b/c their paying with tax dollars) and you know exactly whats going into your babies food. I suggest a baby bullet, it works great, and takes only seconds to make a weeks worth of food, veggies and water thats it. You could make a yrs. worth of food in just the time it takes you to drive to the protest.
Too bad that in this picture, a mom is protesting chemicals in baby food while her baby chews some plastic lamination. Ooops.
Ahhhh…what a great chance to revisit the “little beards” comment! Now THAT’S leadership ;)
It makes me wonder how any of us born in the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s ever made it out of childhood alive! With parents chain smoking in the car with the siblings fighting over who gets to ride on the back window deck and go home for a nap in your lead based painted crib, different times I guess.
This phony non-issue is still being talked about!? I’m glad there’s a bunch of self-important moms out there losing sleep over what has BPA in it. Meanwhile their toddler is swallowing a lithium battery out of a cheap toy, cause they think it’s candy, and the kid can die from that. Oops – real issue alert.