Manufacturers Who Use BPA are Getting Scared

Filed Under Articles, Bisphenol-A 

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soda-canThere’s been a bevy of articles floating around this week about meetings being held by manufacturers of cans and soda products.  They’re concerned because of the public concerns regarding Bisphenol-A (BPA).  Including the makers of Coca-Cola and Campbell.  If you aren’t already aware, soda cans as well as the majority of canned food is lined with BPA – a hormone disrupting chemical that has a bevy of independent university studies showing harmful effects.

The movement by young mothers (their bread and butter buyers) to avoid BPA is causing them some grief, and well deserved.  We all educated ourselves on the effects and are choosing to buy safer alternatives.  Because we’re smart people.   Manufacturers are going over options to change our view of BPA and to back up it’s safety.  They are considering doing one or more of the following tactics to change our view of BPA:

  • Use scare tactics: They’ll use slogans like “Do you want access to baby food anymore?” as if we won’t be able to feed our children without exposing them to BPA.
  • Giving consumers a false sense of control: They will highlight cost effects of choosing BPA Free products.
  • Using a spokesperson:  Their “holy grail” spokesperson would be a pregnant woman they said.  Apparently showing us a pretty pregnant woman enjoying BPA exposed food with a smile will make us all forget the studies done by respected universities showing BPA exposure is linked to metabolic disorders, brain function, heart disease, genital abnormalities, mood disorders, diabetes….. etc etc etc.  Their plan would be to have her go around the country speaking about the benefits of BPA.  (Which are?)

So essentially, they want to scare you into buying products containing BPA because they don’t want to lose money.  They don’t want to bother investigating safer alternatives.  They just want things to go back to the way they were… when we all had no idea BPA existed.  Too bad we’re not so naive to be convinced by fear and a pregnant woman.  This “young mother” isn’t going to fall for it.

Here’s the full article about the meetings held by manufacturers in the Washington Post:

Kathleen M. Roberts, a lobbyist with Bergeson and Campbell for the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, which represents makers of metal cans and their customers, organized Thursday’s meeting and confirmed the accuracy of the notes. She said her members are concerned about bills pending in state legislatures as well as on Capitol Hill that would restrict or eliminate the use of BPA in metal cans. She said BPA is a safe compound that has been tarred by activist groups and that consumers do not fully appreciate its importance.

Oh we appreciate… we appreciate the importance of protecting the health of our families from the dangers of overused chemicals.  We also appreciate that it’s not just activists tarring our view of BPA, it’s the respected studies by top universities and organizations that are opening our eyes to what’s around us.

Source: Washington Post

From Our Fellow Moms

Seems this news has angered more than just us here at SafeMama and our colleagues have some really excellent points:

Sommer from Green and Clean Mom:  Talk to the Hand

“What they heck do these mom bloggers know anyhow? On one hand a company wants to use them for PR and marketing and their qualified and valued and on the other hand they’re just hysterical and not trusted.”

Jennifer Taggart of The Smart Mama: Ready to piss off a mom blogger? Seek a pregnant woman to consume BPA lined canned goods

How stupid do these industry representatives think we are? They think that if they pick the right “messaging” (which the industry will discover through at $500,000 survey of consumer perceptions and messaging), we will ignore the growing body of evidence of adverse health effects associated with BPA exposure? That we can’t separate the fact from the fiction?

Jenn Savedge at Mother Nature Network : Movement afoot to silence BPA concerns

“Instead of researching the alternatives (Japan has significantly reduced its use of BPA in many canned goods,) BPA advocates are hanging on to this sinking ship and spending their time and money to devise a strategy and public relations campaign that would silence these concerns about BPA. According to the article in the Washington Post, industry executives are weighing ideas that use financial fears and dated health information to dissuade people from choosing BPA-free packaging.”

Alicia of The Soft Landing: Bisphenol-a Manufacturers Switch to Fear Inducing Strategy

“Who are the fear mongers now? We were the ones “propagating unnecessary fear” just a few short years ago – that is until science bolstered our basis of concern.  Now the chemical industry is backed into a corner by the very people who supply the largest portion of their bank accounts – young mothers ages 21-35.”

Before we raised issue with BPA in baby products no one ever heard of BPA.  Now you can’t swing a dead cat in Babies R Us without sitting a product labelled BPA FREE.  We changed that, we can change this too.

Here’s more:

Posted by: SafeMama Kathy on May 31, 2009

Comments

4 Responses to “Manufacturers Who Use BPA are Getting Scared”

  1. Kirstin on May 31st, 2009 5:23 pm

    Thank you so much for letting us know about this article! I love hearing that companies are “sweating” but I sickened by what they want to do about it.

    It’s great that mainstream stores like Babies R Us for example are phasing out baby bottles that contain BPA. That alone will help many children when they’re young to avoid it due to the popularity of the store. But so many people are unaware of it in cans as the article mentions(except for Eden’s Organic beans and ONLY their beans)and plastic baby teethers and toys.

    Let’s hope that bloggers and the media can spread the word enough so we can educate as many people as possible about the dangers of BPA and how to avoid it.

  2. Rebecca on May 31st, 2009 6:15 pm

    I don’t know why they don’t consider this for the marketing/ money making opportunity it is. If Campbell’s came out with a BPA free can of tomato soup, I would pay $1 extra (practically double the cost) for that product and I know a lot of other people who would too! Instead of investing money in marketing to tell us its okay, why not invest money in an alternative product and then make all kinds of money off it! It seems like a no-brainer to me!

  3. Tamara @ Parenting By Nature on June 1st, 2009 2:32 pm

    Great article. Considering many of us do spend more on organic, chemical-free, healthier alternatives for our families, the reasoning that getting BPA out of cans being too expensive just doesn’t fly. They could always run a test study. Put their BPA-lined cans next to their new BPA-Free cans and see who’s buying. They might be surprised.

  4. Anaquita on June 1st, 2009 11:46 pm

    For once I’m happy to be gluten free. I don’t touch canned foods in general as they tend to contain gluten in some form or another. (Plus veggies are way tastier fresh.)

    For soup I stick to Pacific Foods soups. They’re in boxes, an well gluten free. Heh. And since I don’t want to make two different things I just feed my kid what I eat!