In Canada it is banned, in the USA they have laws in the pipeline to do the same (and many manufacturers have responded to community concerns by removing it from their products), yet in Australia regulators fail to see the risks posed by BPA.

It is found in many hard plastics, such as baby bottles, reusable drinking bottles, cans of food and microwaveable containers.BPA has been found to transfer from the plastic to the food/drink and then into the human body.

BPA mimics the female hormone estrogen and has proven links with a range of health disorders from infertility, breast and prostate cancer, to thyroid malfunction, attention deficit syndrome and recurrent miscarriage.

Want to know more?

The following reports provide a good overview of the issue:

Baby's Toxic Bottle by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice

Blissfully unaware of Bisphenol A: Reasons why regulators should live up to their responsibilities by Friends of the Earth

How to avoid BPA 

FOEA has produced an excellent guide on how to identify BPA and avoid using it. You can find it here.

Demand a ban on BPA

Please send a letter to the Australian regulators who have the power to ban BPA from our food and drink containers. A suggested draft letter is included below (with thanks to FOEA)

Steve McCutcheon,CEO

PO Box 7186 Canberra, ACT 2610

Dear Sir, I am writing to ask you to ask you to ban the use of Bisphenol A in all food contact materials.

There is now worldwide broad scientific consensus that human exposure to, and contamination with, BPA is widespread and at much higher levels than expected. Numerous studies have found BPA in human serum, urine, amniotic fluid, follicular fluid, placental tissue, and umbilical cord blood. The levels of BPA found in human serum, urine, placental tissues and umbilical cord blood are consistent with the levels that have been proven harmful in all studies conducted on animals.

FZANS must act. I look forward to your positive reply on this matter.

Yours faithfully