PLASTICS AND HEALTH
Canada's ban on BPA in baby products now in effect / Precautionary approach “appropriate”
As the controversy over the health effects of bisphenol A (BPA) continues to rage – Plasteurope.com has reported extensively – Canada has followed through with plans announced in 2008 to officially add BPA to its national List of Toxic substances and to ban sales of plastic baby products in which it is used as a feedstock, thus becoming the first country to do so. The sales ban would affect polycarbonate baby bottles as well as cans of baby formula lined with epoxy resins. The restrictions initially planned to take effect in 2009 – see Plasteurope.com of 22.10.2008 – came into force on 13 October 2010.
The latest move by the country’s environment ministry, Environment Canada, in coordination with the health ministry, Health Canada, came shortly after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA; www.efsa.europa.eu) declined to revise its Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) recommendations for the controversial chemical – see Plasteurope.com of 7.10.2010. A few weeks earlier, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Berlin; www.bfr.bund.de) gave BPA a clean bill of health – on the same day Sweden announced it was preparing a nationwide ban on plastic baby bottles and other special containers made with BPA – see Plasteurope.com of 27.08.2010.
Environment Canada said it has studied the chemical extensively over the past two years and concluded that it is “entering the environment in a quantity or concentration or under conditions that constitute or may constitute a danger in Canada to human life or heath as defined under section 64 of its CEPA 1999 environmental statutes.”
The ministry said adding BPA to Schedule 1 of the statute will allow development of “risk management instruments,” including regulations, guidelines or codes or practices, that can be applied to “any aspect of the substance’s life cycle, from research and development through manufacture, use, storage, transport and ultimate disposal or recycling.” Its Proposed Risk Management Approach document, indicating where risk management activities will be focused, is available online at www.chemicalsubstanceschimiques.gc.ca.
This website also summarises the government’s assessments and conclusions as well providing an overview of public and stakeholder comment it has solicited and received, including an objection by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; www.americanchemistry.com). In the ACC’s view, “Environment Canada's announcement is contrary to the weight of worldwide scientific evidence, unwarranted and will unnecessarily confuse and alarm the public.”
The ministry’s lengthy justification for the ban, based on numerous – to a major extent controversial – studies over the past several years, may do little to clarify the dangers associated with BPA. However, the Canadian government said it is “appropriate to apply a precautionary approach when characterising risk to human health,” especially as studies in rodents give rise to “concern for neurobehavioural effects in newborns and infants.”
Environment Canada estimates that global production of bisphenol A totalled some 4 bn kg in 2006, with usage in Canada “in the range of 100,000-1m kg.” It said “approximately half a million kilograms were imported into the country alone in a product, a mixture or manufactured item." However, the ministry added that more recent information “indicates that a significant decrease has occurred” in the quantity believed to be in commerce in Canada over the past four years.
The latest move by the country’s environment ministry, Environment Canada, in coordination with the health ministry, Health Canada, came shortly after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA; www.efsa.europa.eu) declined to revise its Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) recommendations for the controversial chemical – see Plasteurope.com of 7.10.2010. A few weeks earlier, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Berlin; www.bfr.bund.de) gave BPA a clean bill of health – on the same day Sweden announced it was preparing a nationwide ban on plastic baby bottles and other special containers made with BPA – see Plasteurope.com of 27.08.2010.
Environment Canada said it has studied the chemical extensively over the past two years and concluded that it is “entering the environment in a quantity or concentration or under conditions that constitute or may constitute a danger in Canada to human life or heath as defined under section 64 of its CEPA 1999 environmental statutes.”
The ministry said adding BPA to Schedule 1 of the statute will allow development of “risk management instruments,” including regulations, guidelines or codes or practices, that can be applied to “any aspect of the substance’s life cycle, from research and development through manufacture, use, storage, transport and ultimate disposal or recycling.” Its Proposed Risk Management Approach document, indicating where risk management activities will be focused, is available online at www.chemicalsubstanceschimiques.gc.ca.
This website also summarises the government’s assessments and conclusions as well providing an overview of public and stakeholder comment it has solicited and received, including an objection by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; www.americanchemistry.com). In the ACC’s view, “Environment Canada's announcement is contrary to the weight of worldwide scientific evidence, unwarranted and will unnecessarily confuse and alarm the public.”
The ministry’s lengthy justification for the ban, based on numerous – to a major extent controversial – studies over the past several years, may do little to clarify the dangers associated with BPA. However, the Canadian government said it is “appropriate to apply a precautionary approach when characterising risk to human health,” especially as studies in rodents give rise to “concern for neurobehavioural effects in newborns and infants.”
Environment Canada estimates that global production of bisphenol A totalled some 4 bn kg in 2006, with usage in Canada “in the range of 100,000-1m kg.” It said “approximately half a million kilograms were imported into the country alone in a product, a mixture or manufactured item." However, the ministry added that more recent information “indicates that a significant decrease has occurred” in the quantity believed to be in commerce in Canada over the past four years.
18.10.2010 Plasteurope.com [217542-0]
Published on 18.10.2010