Measure to Restrict BPA Moving to State Senate

NYTimes.com: "Under the Connecticut legislation, infant formula and baby food stored in cans, plastic containers or jars containing BPA could no longer be made or sold in the state as of October 2011. Baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable food and beverage containers like sports bottles with BPA would also be phased out. Other food containers that use BPA liners, including most canned goods, would have to carry a conspicuous warning on the label."

Twenty-four states have pending legislation restricting BPA, but with its labeling requirement, Connecticut’s is the toughest, said Sarah Uhl, coordinator of the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut, a partnership of organizations backing the legislation. New York’s Suffolk County has also banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, and United States Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, this month introduced legislation that would ban BPA in containers marketed for infants and toddlers.

Representatives Lawrence Cafero and Terry Backer of Connecticut said they voted against the bill because of the labeling requirement, calling it ineffective and burdensome on companies. “ ‘Warning: This product contains bisphenol-A.’ What does that mean to anyone?” Mr. Cafero said. Also, he said, “the science is not confirmed.”

The American Chemistry Council, the industry’s trade association, lobbied against the measure. Representatives said that Connecticut failed to consider scientific studies that found BPA safe for food contact. “Connecticut’s legislation is not based in science,” Steve Hentges of the council’s Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group said in a statement.

Connecticut lawmakers have supported other environmental protection measures. Last year, it became the third state to outlaw lead in children’s toys.

At the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering in New Haven, researchers are working on finding safe alternatives to BPA and other common chemicals considered hazardous.

No solution is at hand, said Paul Anastas, director of the center. “You could certainly have a replacement in the coming year,” he said, adding that such advances will take more federal funding.

“There are promising new molecules, but perhaps more important, you don’t want another BPA; you want something better for humans and the environment that performs better in a plastic,” he said.