Public Health Law Fellow Calls for BPA Ban to Encompass All Infant-Contact Products

Arguing that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure is particularly harmful for young children, infants and fetuses “because they lack mature systems of bodily detoxification,” a public health law and policy fellow at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law has called for governmental entities at every level to prohibit the chemical in any product “meant to be consumed or used by a young child, infant, or pregnant woman.” Leila Barraza, “A New Approach for Regulating Bisphenol A for the Protection of the Public’s Health,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Spring 2013. Part of a public health law conference symposium, this article discusses the mixed results of litigation against companies that use BPA in food and beverage contact materials and the failure of legislative initiatives that would restrict its use to take hold at the federal and state levels.

The author calls on the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental
Protection Agency to take action to regulate BPA, although she acknowledges
that “suitable alternatives” are not readily available. She also calls for future
regulation modeled on Connecticut’s “aggressive” law, “which included not
only reusable food and beverage containers, but also extended to thermal
receipt paper. This should be further expanded to include disposable food
and beverage containers, tableware, pacifiers, teethers, food container lids,
canned foods and beverages, toys, and medical devices.”