Food Standards Agency refuses to ban Bisphenol-A in food packaging and baby milk bottles

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Food safety campaigners have reacted angrily to a refusal by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to ban controversial plastic additive Bisphenol A (BPA), which is present in some food packaging and containers.
 

Although six manufacturers in the US have removed BPA, a suspected hormone disruptor, from their baby bottles, the same products on sale in the UK will still contain the chemical.

Although research is still inconclusive on the health effects of BPA, Dr Iain Lang, lead author of research by Exeter University which found that people with higher levels of BPA in their body were more susceptible to heart disease and diabetes, told the BBC that ‘there is definitely something going on’.

A spokesperson for the National Childbirth Trust said that with viable alternatives to BPA already available there was no reason to continue using it.

This article first appeared in the Ecologist April 2009