Washington Toxics Coalition: Legislature Passes Bill Banning Bisphenol A

For more information, visit the Washington Toxics Coalition on the web at www.watoxics.org; on the WTC blog at www.watoxics.org/blog; on Facebook at www.facebook.com/watoxics; and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WA_Toxics.

Parents and kids can raise a BPA-free sippy cup in celebration of a new Washington state law banning bisphenol A (BPA) in children’s dishware and sports bottles. The Children’s Safe Product Act, backed by the Washington Toxics Coalition and members of the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition, was signed by Governor Gregoire in March after passing the House 96-1 and the Senate 38-9.

BPA was a relatively unknown bad actor chemical until 2008, when the Canadian government took a hard look at the dozens of studies showing toxic effects at low doses and declared bisphenol A a hazardous substance.

While Canadian scientists did not conclude definitively that the chemical will cause harm at current exposure levels, the government took action to protect infants and children from potential health effects. Canada also moved to ban baby bottles made of polycarbonate, prompting a number of major manufacturers to switch to alternate materials.

Each of us has reason for concern about exposure to BPA, with laboratory research indicating that health effects may be seen at common exposure levels. Growing evidence suggests that BPA may lead to diabetes or obesity, affect children’s brain or reproductive development, or even cause cancer.

The most disturbing research related to BPA and cancer centers around breast and prostate cancer. Exposure to estrogen and related chemicals is known to increase the chance of developing breast cancer. The jury isn’t yet in on whether bisphenol A belongs in this group, but a body of research has begun to paint a disturbing picture: in laboratory animals, exposure to bisphenol A before birth leads to changes in prostate and mammary development that raise the risk for cancer. Animals exposed to bisphenol A while in the womb had altered mammary gland development, and greater sensitivity to estrogen—and at puberty, they had higher levels of cancer precursors.

Passage of the Safe Baby Bottle Act means parents can soon expect store shelves stocked with dishware and sports bottles free of toxic BPA. Specifically, the legislation eliminates BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups, and other food and beverage containers intended for children 3 years of age and under beginning July 2011. It also bans BPA in sports bottles beginning July 2012.

The new law follows closely on the heels of other state laws enacted in the last year. Maryland, Wisconsin, and Vermont passed bans this year and Minnesota and Connecticut passed bans in 2009. Several other states, including California, New York, and Illinois have similar bans pending. Oregon’s legislature defeated a similar bill last month.

Children’s health champion Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) deserves praise for tirelessly shepherding the bill for two years through the legislature, as does Senate prime sponsor Karen Keiser (D-Kent). Also critical in the bill’s passage were Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Roy), Rep. Zach Hudgins (D-Seattle), Rep. Matt Shea (R-Greenacres), and Sen. Kevin Ranker (D-San Juan Island).

Of course this victory couldn’t have happened without the thousands of e-mails, phone calls, messages, pictures and much more that parents and other concerned consumers helped deliver to legislators. The bill’s margin of victory shows that when people take action, legislators will listen!

While a BPA phaseout will go far in protecting children from a harmful chemical, it’s just a drop in the bucket compared with the overhaul of current law needed to make sure chemicals are safe before being allowed in consumer products. That’s because the federal law regulating chemicals, called the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is widely understood to be ineffective. When TSCA passed, it “grandfathered” in 62,000 chemicals without restriction or testing.

In more than 30 years since then, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has only required testing for 200 chemicals and only restricted the use of five chemicals. A growing body of science has documented widespread human exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday products, and has linked chemical exposure to threats of reduced fertility, learning disabilities, breast and prostate cancer, among other diseases.

Because of this failure of federal law, most of the action on toxic chemicals in the past few years has happened in states, including here in Washington. Bans on toxic flame retardants, lead in toys, and more recently BPA and similar legislation in numerous other states, as well as consumer demand for safer products, has driven the chemical industry to the table to join the chorus of many voices calling for reform of federal law.

Fortunately, Congress is starting to pay attention. The “Safe Chemicals Act of 2010,” was introduced April 15 by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Bobby Rush (D-IL), and is designed to overhaul federal regulation of the chemical industry for the first time in 34 years.

The Safe Chemicals Act proposes several essential reforms that would substantially improve public health protections, including requiring chemicals to meet a minimum health-based safety standard that protects the most vulnerable, including the developing fetus and young children, and identifying “hot spot” communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals and creating action plans to reduce that unjust burden on health.

Yet, there are serious shortcomings of the legislation that, if not corrected, could perpetuate the failure of the current system to fully protect environmental public health. It makes it too hard to get known dangerous chemicals off the market, such as Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic chemicals (PBTs) like lead and brominated flame retardants. It also would allow hundreds of new chemicals to enter the market and be used in products for many years without first requiring them to be shown to be safe.

So, while the introduction of the Safe Chemicals Act is worth celebrating, it still needs to be strengthened before we can call it a victory. Washington state needs to keep passing strong toxics policies, like the BPA phaseout, to show Congress meaningful laws that protect people and the environment from harmful chemicals are possible. We also need to keep telling state and federal policymakers we want a life without chemicals that harm our health and environment. Most of us aren’t chemists. It shouldn’t be our responsibility to figure out whether the products we buy for our family are harmful or safe. §