Lobbyist 'fear tactics' to fight BPA ban seem to be working

California Watch:The efforts center around Senate Bill 797, a law that died in the Assembly last year but is expected to come up for a vote next week. It would ban the chemical bisphenol A, known as "BPA," from baby bottles, sippy cups and the linings of liquid and powder baby formula containers.'It doesn't matter what FDA says. If consumers decide they don't want BPA, you don't want it to be in a can that consumers don't want to buy,' said one source at a major U.S. food company who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Major food companies declined to talk publicly about their efforts to find a replacement for BPA linings. 'We don't have a safe, effective alternative, and that's an unhappy place to be,' the source said. 'No one wants to talk about that.'

"As far as the real potential for grocery shelves to sit bare, the Washington Post examined the grocery and can-making industries' efforts to find replacements for BPA. One source told the Post that government efforts to ban the chemical aside, the search for a replacement in canned foods is proving difficult:

The Post reported, though, that some companies have announced plans to eliminate the chemical in cans, but have not disclosed their mode of replacing it."