As consumers grow increasingly concerned about the health effects of plastics ingredients such as bisphenol A (BPA) or styrene, and public authorities in North America as well as Europe mull bans – see Plasteurope.com of 14.08.2009 and 21.08.2009 – the industry is beginning to be concerned, too. Two plastics organisations have reacted recently to what they see as unjustifiably negative press reports.

The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI, Washington DC / USA; www.plasticsindustry.org) addressed claims by the "Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel" that plastics producers have launched “an unprecedented public relations blitz” that uses many of the same tactics the tobacco industry once employed against regulation. A few days earlier, the US-based Styrene Information and Research Center (SIRC, Arlington, Virginia; www.styrene.org) took the media to task for not verifying contentions by a Japanese research group that styrene monomer is a “known” carcinogen.

The Milwaukee paper, known for its comprehensive and, some say, aggressive reporting on chemicals and health, said its “four-month investigation” had revealed “a highly calibrated campaign by plastics makers to fight federal regulation of BPA, downplay its risks and discredit anyone who characterizes the chemical as a health threat.” The article alleged also that the FDA has “relied on chemical industry lobbyists” to help draft public safety standards for BPA for more than a decade, and that plastics producers have discussed using scare tactics to dissuade authorities from imposing bans.

Commenting on the newspaper article, SPI president and former Demag executive Bill Carteaux said the society is committed to “an open and transparent dialogue about the safety of products and their relationship to the economy, the environment and a sustainable future.” But he said plans drafted this summer for a USD 3m per year internet campaign to present its side of the BPA discussion have not made much progress. News reports from the meeting, including some in trade media, quote Carteaux as saying the campaign is needed to “combat a broad assault on plastics in consumer and health care products.”

The latest flare-up of a long-running discussion on the possible carcinogenic effects of SM stems from a study on degradability of plastics debris in the oceans, the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” – see Plasteurope.com of 25.08.2009. The study’s findings are outlined in a press release handed out at the 19 August national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS, Washington, DC / USA; www.acs.org) and available on its website. In addition to calling SM a carcinogen, the release quotes lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido of Nihon University as calling BPA and PS oligomer “sources of concern” as endocrine disrupters.

In a prompt reaction, SIRC executive director Jack Snyder said the industry organisation “sponsors environmental health research on styrene to support sound public policy on this vital chemical” and that editors should “encourage reporters to factor this information into their future reports. No authoritative body anywhere in the world considers styrene to be a known human carcinogen,” said Snyder. In fact, a California judge, acting on a suit brought by SIRC, earlier this month intervened against plans by the US state’s Environmental Protection Agency to add SM to its list of “chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.”