Within the next two years, some children’s products such as bottles and sippy cups that contain the chemical Bisphenol-A, or BPA, could be off Minnesota store shelves.
Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Mpls) sponsors HF326, which, in its original version, would have prohibited the chemical’s use in more products including toys, teething products and infant formula containers. Clark amended the bill to narrow its scope and incorporate some retailers’ and manufacturers’ concerns.
The bill would ban manufacturers from selling children’s products intended for use by children age 3 or younger that contain BPA after Jan. 1, 2010, and retailers from selling them after Jan. 1, 2011. It was approved March 25 by the House Labor and Consumer Protection Division and March 30 by the House Commerce and Labor Committee, which sent it to the House floor.
In testimony one week earlier, Lindsay Dahl, policy and media coordinator with the Healthy Legacy Program of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said that numerous peer-reviewed research studies have found BPA to be a carcinogen and endocrine disruptor. Its use in baby products is banned in Canada, and 14 other states are looking at a ban.
Testifying on behalf of the American Chemistry Council, Steven Hentges rejected Dahl’s claims. He said international testing companies have not found BPA to be risky, and that European Union countries and regulating agencies have “found no reason to take action on BPA.” He said the Canadian ban is only precautionary, not based on definitive evidence of risk. He also said manufacturing substitutes for BPA have not been as thoroughly tested as BPA.
BPA is widely used in consumer products such as eyeglasses, sports helmets, electronic toys and lining for beverage or liquid cans.
Rep. Patti Fritz (DFL-Faribault) said that as a nurse and a grandmother she wouldn’t buy products containing BPA. “The world may not think this is harmful, but here in Minnesota with my own grandchildren I feel I could not purchase something with that in it today.”
Some substitutes for products made with BPA are safe, but expensive, such as those made from plant-based materials, or breakable, such as glass.