For the last two decades, scientists have amassed evidence that bisphenol A (BPA) poses a threat to human health. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, can liners for food and beverages, and thermal paper used for register receipts. It is used in so many applications that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found traces of BPA in 93 percent of people it tested. Although scientists have targeted BPA as a public health concern, plastics industry lobbyists have attempted to thwart the efforts of federal, state, and local authorities to reduce exposure to BPA.
The industry arguments can confuse the public because the way BPA acts on the body is counter-intuitive. Contrary to the old toxicology axiom that “the dose makes the poison,” smaller amounts of BPA are linked to a host of negative health effects. BPA is an endocrine disruptor, a chemical that interferes with the body’s system of hormones. The endocrine system is very sensitive, so just a small amount of BPA at the wrong time can have major health consequences. That’s why scientists and parents alike are so concerned about BPA.
Infants and small children are the most vulnerable, and they are also the most highly exposed to BPA. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) should coordinate their efforts to regulate BPA. And Congress should improve the federal approach to toxics regulation by affirmatively empowering agencies like the EPA, FDA, CPSC and OSHA to regulate endocrine-disrupting compounds.
For advocates who’ve been around the regulatory block a few times, the industry’s attack will look familiar. Industry groups have fought regulations on everything from automobiles to tobacco in roughly the same way. First, industry lobbyists attack the science, suggest that agencies use industry-funded studies, and stoke scientific controversies. Next, they claim that regulations will bankrupt the industry and kill jobs. Finally, if state or local regulation becomes unavoidable, they seek to undermine it by pushing for lax federal-level regulations, to take the wind out of the sails of state-level advocacy.
Today the Center for Progressive Reform releases a new white paper, Opening the Industry Playbook: Myths and Truths in the Debate Over BPA Regulation, which debunks five industry myths about the science, economics, and regulatory approach to BPA:
Concerned parents and grassroots activists have led the way on BPA, and public outcry has caused manufacturers to voluntarily remove the chemical from many products for infants and children. But federal agencies need to catch up and develop tools to protect the public from dozens of other endocrine disrupting compounds. The agencies should use BPA to set the standard for how they address endocrine disruptors in the future.
Today's report was written by CPR President Rena Steinzor, Member Scholar Tom McGarity, Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz, and myself.
Showing 2,817 results
Lena Pons | June 2, 2011
For the last two decades, scientists have amassed evidence that bisphenol A (BPA) poses a threat to human health. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, can liners for food and beverages, and thermal paper used for register receipts. It is used in so many applications that the Centers for Disease […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | June 2, 2011
The Obama administration has been busy with its regulatory look-back, which required agencies to identify health, safety, and environmental standards to be reviewed in the coming months, with the possibility of eliminating or modifying them (in some cases, the specific proposal for modification or elimination was already made last week). In explaining why the look-back […]
Daniel Farber | June 1, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I’ve just spent some time reading the initial briefs in the D.C. Circuit on the endangerment issue. They strike me as much more political documents than legal ones. A brief recap for those who haven’t been following the legal side of the climate issue. After the Bush Administration decided not to […]
Matt Shudtz | May 31, 2011
OSHA published a report (pdf) last week on its role in the federal government’s response to last year’s massive oil spill. Within days of the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon, OSHA officials were in Louisiana, working to ensure that the people involved in the response and cleanup had adequate protection from the myriad hazards they would […]
Holly Doremus | May 27, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I was excited to read this story in the LA Times, saying that BOEMRE and NOAA had reached an agreement that would give NOAA more say in decisions to approve offshore drilling. (Draw whatever conclusions you like about what my geeky excitement says about how boring my life must be.) This […]
Amy Sinden | May 26, 2011
Following up on President Obama’s January Executive Order calling for agencies to conduct a regulatory “look-back,” the Administration today released a target list of health, safety, and environmental standards to be reviewed by agencies in the coming months, with an eye toward eliminating or modifying them. The President’s January announcement was driven by politics, and […]
Rena Steinzor | May 25, 2011
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein heads to the American Enterprise Institute Thursday morning to speak about federal agencies’ plans to “look back” at and review existing regulations. Meanwhile, agencies statutorily obligated to protect public health and safety, such as EPA and OSHA, are diverting resources from pressing work so that […]
Thomas McGarity | May 19, 2011
The report issued this morning by the Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel on the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 miners at the Massey Energy Company’s Upper Big Branch Mine just over a year ago will never make the New York Times best seller list. But it should be required reading for all policymakers with […]
Rena Steinzor | May 18, 2011
This post was written by CPR Member Scholars Rena Steinzor and Catherine O’Neill, and Policy Analyst James Goodwin. By any reasonable estimation, it should have been a jewel in the EPA’s regulatory crown. Released in February, the EPA’s final Boiler MACT rule (actually, it’s two rules—one addressing large boilers and the other addressing smaller ones) would […]