In Suffolk, clash over BPA ban

Newsday.com: "Packaging industry officials said yesterday a landmark Suffolk ban of BPA in plastic baby bottles would hurt the poor, create problems for hospitals and lead to a lengthy lawsuit, while backers of the law say it will speed up the move to safer alternatives.

The clash came in a nearly two-hour hearing in Hauppauge over a local law that would make Suffolk the first county in the country to bar the use of bisphenol A from hard plastic baby bottles and sippy cups used by children under age 3."

Among those speaking for the industry was former Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin, who said the health department can't enforce the new law because inspectors would have to monitor even yard sales where used sippy cups are sold. 

William Hoyle, of the North American Packaging Alliance, maintained a ban will only "increase the risk of food-borne illness." He also said that 12,000 poor infants who have to rely on federally funded formula which uses packaging with BPA will have no alternative "creating the potential for malnutrition."

Mardi Mountford, of the National Formula Council, said that banning BPA could also have an adverse impact on hospitals that now use formula prepackaged with caps that contain BPA. She also said that package regulation is pre-empted by the federal rules, which could lead to a lengthy lawsuit. But ban backers say safe packaging for caps is available and major companies like Gerber, Playtex and Evenflow are stopping the use of bottles with BPA.

One backer, Karen Greene, marketing manager for Whole Food Market in Manhasset, said that going BPA-free has increased business. "Cost-effective alternatives do exist," she said, "and people are going to us because we offer these products."