Countries worldwide are taking a different approach to BPA, from issuing partial bans to maintaining it to be completely safe. However, as European and US food safety regulators look to update their advisories on it, the debate over BPA may soon reach a conclusion.

The presentation presented at the New Zealand Food Safety Authority conference in Auckland today, Professor Gordon Robertson, an expert in food packaging, explained the varying opinions on BPA amongst the scientific community. Outlining several food packaging chemicals and techniques, such as, recycled paper packaging to the ink used on food labels, which did not make the headlines as the industry creating them and the scientific community had a poor understanding of their impact on food and human health.

Last week, the BPA issue took up considerable space in the New York Times, as Denise Grady, its science writer tried to simpligy some of the conflicting information about BPA. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in shedding light of on whether ‘endocrine disruptor’ Bisphenol-A that mimics the hormone oestrogen, has lasting harmful effects on humans.

The United States Senate is expected to take action as early as this week on a critical federal food safety legislation, the US Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). Everyone is urged to offer their support to this bill.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is calling for an amendment to the food safety bill for banning bisphenol A (BPA) from sippy cups, baby bottles, baby food and infant formula containers. Children need to be protected from BPA, as over 200 studies have linked BPA to health effects like reproductive disorders, birth defects, prostate and breast cancer, low sperm count, early puberty, including affecting brain development and behaviour.

BPA leaches from containers like sippy cups, baby bottles, baby food and infant formula canisters into the food and drink, which is then ingested by babies and children. The CDC found BPA in 93% of all Americans. EWG research last year, revealed BPA in umbilical cord blood of newborns, indicating babies are exposed to the toxic chemical before birth.