EWG Drops “BPA Bombshell” Product Database
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has launched what it
describes as “the first easily, searchable database of nearly 16,000
processed food and drinks packaged in materials that may contain the
hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A, or BPA.” According to EWG,
the new database organizes information obtained from a food industry
website into a list of products that users can search from EWG’s Food
Scores application.
“The industry website’s apparent main purpose is to help food companies
supply warning signs to retailers,” states EWG in a June 17, 2016, press
release. “It reveals that Americans are far more widely exposed than
previously known to a hormone-disrupting industrial chemical that poses
greatest risk to pregnant women, infants and children. But the website is
a chaotic jumble––incomplete, inconsistent, poorly organized and hard
to use.”
EWG claims that its BPA database features 926 brands linked to 16,000
products, “including more than 8,000 soup, vegetable, sauce and fruit
products, nearly 1,600 tomato products, more than 1,400 beverages
and more than 500 meat and seafood products.” As the consumer group
concludes, “EWG urges the California Office of Health Hazard Assessment
not to extend beyond October 2016 the temporary rule allowing
warning signs to be placed at checkout. The agency should also move
quickly to establish a ‘safe harbor’ limit for BPA in food packaging that
takes into account risk from low doses, to allow customers to choose
products that will not expose them to levels above the limit.”
Issue 608
