FDA To Revise BPA Review, Considers Independent Studies

CNNMOney: "The Food and Drug Administration is revising its draft assessment on a chemical commonly found in baby bottles, saying it will reconsider some independent studies that showed Bisphenol-A, or BPA, isn't safe at current levels.

The FDA's original report on BPA, issued in August, relied on studies funded by the chemical industry and said the chemical is safe at levels currently found in plastic baby bottles and canned foods.

But scientists balked, saying the FDA shouldn't have ignored the hundreds of independent studies that have found BPA is harmful to humans. An FDA panel of outside medical experts in October agreed, saying those studies deserve more attention.

The FDA is re-evaluating some independent studies it excluded in the original assessment to determine whether they warrant more consideration, said Norris Alderson, the FDA's associate commissioner for science, in a Dec. 3 letter to an FDA advisory board."

The FDA is also actively searching for new data on BPA and has already started reviewing two studies the panel suggested it look at, according to Alderson's letter.