Jul
17
Filed Under Articles, Bisphenol-A, SafeMama Press
While many parents have been frustrated over the FDA’s lack of progress over whether or not to ban the chemical Bisphenol-A, giant retailers such as Toys R Us, Wal-Mart and CVS have already made the announcement that they’re taking action and removing bottles and cups containing BPA from their shelves. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is more as a result of dropping sales on these items and customer satisfaction, rather than whether or not the FDA deems this chemical safe. In CNN Money today…
The question is, why? Bisphenol-A has been widely used since the 1950s. The Food and Drug Administration, as well as Japanese and European regulators, have no problems with it. Canada is about to ban it from baby bottles, but officials term the move purely precautionary.
To be sure, other scientists worry because animal studies have linked small doses of BPA to cancer and other health problems. But scientific debate isn’t driving the baby bottle war; a hard-hitting push by activist groups, politicians and trial lawyers is.
And then I noticed that there’s a tiny mention about SafeMama in there. Oh HI!
In all seriousness, if it’s enviromental activists, lawyers and politicians that are driving this momentum, than I am all for it. Anything to remove these chemicals from everyday products.
Kathy interjecting here… I find it comical that Mr. Gunther gives people like Healthy Child Healthy World and SafeMama credit for making this happen. It couldn’t be oh, say the startling research published by independent researchers at Universities that are making consumers think twice about trusting the antiquated FDA’s ruling from a billion years ago. From his article:
What’s inarguable, though, is how rapidly markets can by reshaped today by an activist campaign that catches fire online. The Environmental Working Group and the authors of the book Our Stolen Future have used the Internet to sound alarms about bisphenol-A. The Bisphenol-A Free portal keeps a running tally of bad news reports. Bloggers at www.safemama.com and www.healthychild.org pound away at the chemical industry.
We’re pounding away at the chemical industry? Not exactly. We’re merely parents trying to help pther parents wrap their head around the information we have available to us. Here at SafeMama, we have made it our priority to not inject our opinion on what parents should do, we simply present material we find and help parents educate themselves to make their own choices.
We can’t help that parents don’t want to risk their children’s safety on a cheap piece of plastic so that a bottle company can make a few bucks. And frankly, I think it’s an insult to consumers intelligence to assume they are changing their buying habits on an internet whim.
But now that I know we have that kind of persuasive power, I challenge all bottle, cup, formula and food makers in this country to give the consumer the choice of buying BPA free. AS parents, we aren’t willing to risk it for even .00005% chance. So get with the program. (Thus endeth Kathy’s rant)
All I can say is, don’t mess with a woman who is on the forage for some chocolate!
And in conclusion, one of the things mentioned in the article, that sticks out in my mind as of late, is that the industry doesn’t exactly have a good track record. Opinion aside, I’ve never had much confidence in an industry that comes across as so biased. If there’s one message we strive for as a parent, do your own research and do what’s right for you and your family. Of course we’re trying to make as much of a difference as we can, but the more people become educated on environmental toxins, the more of a difference we can make.
Related articles:
- Fox News Article: Greening Your Baby from Head to Toe
- Article: No Effects from BPA.
- Canada Bans Polycarbonate Baby Bottles with Bisphenol-a
