Yesterday came and went with no announcement from the FDA on the safety of BPA in food packaging. The agency had created a self-imposed November 30 deadline for releasing a new finding, and in the intervening months, a number of new studies on the health effects of BPA have been released and FDA has brought in an outside expert to head up the review. These developments have understandably slowed the review process.
The question before FDA is whether BPA is safe for its intended use in food contact applications -- the lining inside cans, for example. So Kaiser Permanente’s recent headline-grabbing study that showed an increased likelihood of erectile dysfunction and problems ejaculating among workers who were highly exposed to BPA in a Chinese plant might not be very useful in making that determination. But the many studies showing correlations between various exposures to BPA and other adverse health effects might be more important.
As Meg Kissinger reports in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, FDA’s review panel – now headed by Lynn Goldman of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, a renowned expert on endocrine-disrupting chemicals – must make its safety determination amidst a whirlwind of other developments, including voluntary restrictions on certain uses of BPA by the chemical’s manufacturers, local laws banning BPA use in baby bottles, and petitions from public health NGOs for new product labels, warnings, and temporary bans on specific uses of BPA.
The intertwined policy developments and evolving science on BPA’s toxicology have created a difficult environment for FDA to communicate a clear statement to the public about the health concerns connected to BPA. But slow reactions to experts’ warnings on public health threats have plagued FDA in recent years (e.g., suicides linked to antidepressants, dangers posed by children’s use of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines). The BPA review presents an opportunity for FDA to show it can be on the leading edge for a change.
Showing 2,818 results
Matt Shudtz | December 1, 2009
Yesterday came and went with no announcement from the FDA on the safety of BPA in food packaging. The agency had created a self-imposed November 30 deadline for releasing a new finding, and in the intervening months, a number of new studies on the health effects of BPA have been released and FDA has brought […]
John Echeverria | November 30, 2009
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. By the time they finish hearing from both sides, the justices may wonder whether this case was worth their time and effort. (My amicus brief on the case is here). Petitioner is a small […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | November 25, 2009
This morning, Toyota Motor Corporation announced it intends to replace accelerator pedals on about 3.8 million recalled vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in a floor mat. But the recall could still leave more than a million faulty cars on the road. As I wrote earlier, there had been over […]
James Goodwin | November 25, 2009
Perhaps caught up in the spirit of the holiday shopping season, a large number of industry bargain hunters have been busy seeking great deals on regulatory relief at the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in recent weeks. To be precise, the bureau hosted no fewer than 11 meetings with corporate interests […]
Yee Huang | November 24, 2009
On Monday, CPR Member Scholars and others sent a memorandum to Senator Ben Cardin that addressed the constitutionality of S. 1816, the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009. At a Senate Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife hearing earlier this month, one witness contested the key provisions of S. 1816, asserting that they […]
Ben Somberg | November 23, 2009
The Obama Administration is expected to issue revisions to Executive Order 12,866, which specifies how the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) supervises federal regulatory agencies as they develop regulations to protect health, safety, the environment, and more (see the full comments on the matter submitted by CPR's board members in March). CPR […]
Joel A. Mintz | November 20, 2009
As it nears the close of its first year in office, the Obama Administration has thus far failed to name half of the regional administrators for its ten regional offices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and it was only on November 5th that it named those five officials. The reason for the lengthy […]
Ben Somberg | November 19, 2009
“Interior increases oversight of mountaintop mining” trumpets the AP, and “U.S. boosts coal mining oversight to fight pollution” says Reuters. That’s in response to an announcement from Interior on Wednesday. But on Coal Tattoo, and from NRDC and Sierra Club, one learns of a pretty different story. Says NRDC’s Rob Perks: Why in the world […]
Rena Steinzor | November 19, 2009
On Monday, OMB Director Peter Orszag sent a letter to Rep. Ed Markey, responding to Congressman Markey’s concerns about OMB’s involvement in EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program. Orszag’s letter — released by Markey's office Wednesday — explains, in no uncertain terms, that OMB is done meddling in EPA’s scientific determinations about endocrine-disrupting chemicals. It’s a […]