Infant Formula Makers, Canned Food Producers Called on to Remove BPA

AScribe Newswiret: "In the wake of an FDA advisory panel's devastating rebuke of the agency's safety assessment for the toxic plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA), Environmental Working Group (EWG) has written North America's leading infant formula manufacturers and canned food producers urging them to take immediate steps to remove BPA from canned infant formula and other canned foods.

"Liquid formula is the biggest culprit in exposing infants to a toxic hormone-disrupting chemical, but kid-friendly foods like canned chicken noodle soup and ravioli also have high levels of BPA," said EWG Senior Analyst Sonya Lunder. "BPA was initially used as a sex hormone. It should never have been allowed to come into contact with infant formula."

"The evidence is overwhelming that FDA has been the industry's lapdog," Lunder said. "Manufacturers must immediately repackage formula and canned food to remove this chemical, shown by many studies to cause brain and reproductive system damage in crucial stages of development."

A 2007 Environmental Working Group survey of the four leading makers of liquid formula sold in North America found that all used BPA-based epoxy resin coating to line their formula cans. These included Nestle (Good Start), Ross-Abbot (Similac and Isomil), MeadJohnson (Enfamil), and PBM (maker of store-brand formulas sold at Target, Kroger and dozens of other retailers).

An EWG research report, Toxic Plastics Chemical in Infant Formula, concluded that infants fed exclusively on canned ready-to-eat formula are exposed to unsafe levels of BPA and that one in 16 babies on liquid formula are exposed to doses exceeding those that caused damage in laboratory animals.

EWG found that infants fed liquid formula, which can make up their total diet for the first six months of life, suffered the greatest exposures to the toxin. EWG calculations show that babies should not be fed liquid formula sold in metal cans. Powdered formula or liquid types sold in plastic containers are BPA-free options.

In a second study, also in 2007, EWG laboratory tests found BPA in 20 out of 30 brands of canned food, amounting to more than half of the cans of foods tested. One to three servings per day of foods found to be highly contaminated, including chicken soup and ravioli, could expose an infant, child or a pregnant woman to BPA at levels that have caused serious harm in animal studies.

Food brands found to contain BPA were B&M, Bush's Best, Campbell's Chunky, Campbell's Spaghettios, Campbell's Swanson, Chef Boyardee, Chicken of the Sea, Coca-Cola, Del Monte, Dole, Ensure, Green Giant, Kroger store brand, Libby's, Nestle Carnation, Pepsi-Cola, Progresso, S&W, Slim-Fast and Wolfgang Puck.

In a strongly worded report released Tuesday, the FDA Science Board's BPA subcommittee concluded that an internal FDA assessment of BPA contained a number of serious scientific flaws and significantly underestimated the health risks of BPA.