In the News
European Plastics Industry Challenges Call by German Agency to Limit Use of BPA
Jun 22, 2010
PlasticsEurope, an association representing plastic manufacturers, challenged the German Federal Environment Agency's (UBA) recommendation to further restrict the level of bisphenol A (BPA) in products. UBA's recommendation was made in a background paper, titled, "Bisphenol A – a chemical with adverse effects produced in large quantities." A June 9, 2010 press release announcing the publication of the paper stated: "To protect human health and environment Jochen Flasbarth, president of UBA, recommends producers as well as users of this substance [BPA] to use alternative substances already at this state of knowledge for reasons of precaution."
The European plastics industry disagrees with UBA's conclusions. PlasticsEurope's Polycarbonate/Bisphenol A Group issued a press release on June 11 alleging that UBA's publication on BPA "is in direct contradiction to the conclusions of the extensive BPA risk assessments carried out by both German and European authorities." Specifically, the PC/BPA Group stressed that the UBA recommendation constitutes a misuse of the precautionary principle. Explaining, the Group stated in the release, "The precautionary principle should only be applied if the insecurities in the assessment of a risk are large, for example, when scientific data is either unavailable or insufficient. However, BPA has an extensive scientific data base available, and experts can assess any risk associated with BPA comparably well."
PlasticsEurope's PC/BPA Group also cautioned that UBA's recommendation to use alternative substances would "replace a well characteri[z]ed risk with an unpredictable risk." The Group added that "there is no evidence provided that the UBA have meticulously examined the data base and safety of potential alternatives to BPA."
Health Canada Survey Finds No Risk From BPA in Canned Foods
Health Canada announced that exposure to BPA from canned food products is very low and poses no health or safety concerns to the general population after conducting a survey of 78 different canned food products from Canadian markets. The highest level of BPA was found in canned tuna, which had an average of 137 ppb of BPA and a maximum of 543 ppb. The average and maximum BPA levels for tomato paste products were 1.1 ppb and 2.1 ppb, respectively. In a report on the BPA survey, Health Canada stated, "On average, the BPA levels observed in the vast majority of samples within this survey are consistent with those of past surveys and are not considered to represent a human health concern."