The growing debate over whether typical, everyday household plastic items containing Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, are safe has become a controversial issue once again following the release of a report published in April by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ National Toxicology Program (NTP).
The use of BPA in everything from water bottles, children’s “sippy” cups and baby products such as pacifiers and bottles has been debated for the last decade but is currently under scrutiny as consumer groups and administrative bodies try to come to a final conclusion about safety surrounding this chemical substance.
The NTP report states that BPA, which mimics the female sex hormone estrogen, was responsible for causing an increased risk of reproductive system abnormalities as well as breast and prostate cancer in the animal subjects and human cells. Problems of obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, learning disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were also found as a result of infants being exposed to the chemical in their mothers’ wombs.
The NTP study was initially carried out on 19 baby bottles purchased in nine US states from US-based retailers Toys R Us/Babies R Us, Target and Wal-Mart. According to the study’s findings, when heated to 80 degrees Celsius (175 degrees Fahrenheit) or above, bottles manufactured by Dr. Brown’s, Gerber, Disney, Evenflo, Playtex and Avent leached between 4.7 to 8.3 parts per billion of BPA into liquids in the container — these are levels that below this range have proved to have harmful effects on animal test subjects during research.
According to information published this month in US-based magazine, Consumer Reports, the current daily limit of BPA as stated by the US Environmental Protection Agency regarded as “safe” is equal to 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, a standard based on experiments conducted in the late 1980s and guidelines which are outdated, experts argue, saying that these statistics were accurate before a flood of modern studies emerged suggesting that serious health risks could result from lower doses.
Other studies have also shown adverse health effects from exposures to BPA at doses of only 0.025 microgram per kilogram of body weight per day. In this case, a three-month-old baby drinking formula from a polycarbonate bottle could be exposed to as much as 11 micrograms per kilogram of body weight daily.
Nonetheless, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to stand by its previous statement advising consumers that they should not be concerned about BPA and its use in plastic containers saying, “Studies do not indicate a safety concern at the current exposure levels.” The FDA cited two studies backing up their claims, both of which were industry funded. Recently, the government agency has come under fire, being accused of bowing to industry interests instead of upholding proper safety regulations; many say that manufacturers of the products have been given a loophole through which their poisonous products can be sold around the world.
BPA in Saudi Arabia
Arab News found the products for sale in a majority of retail shops in the Saudi market. From toy stores to supermarkets to pharmacies and discount shops, each outlet had its own department dedicated to the sale of plastic baby products. Arab News contacted a local franchise of one of the major US toy stores, which is currently considering banning the sale of the BPA-containing products abroad, to see if they knew about the research findings.
“We were not aware (of the the recent study), although we are notified on a weekly basis from TRU-US of all the items related to recall and safety issues.
However, we will immediately remove any items from our shelves if proved by any means that they are unsafe and we will promise to stop selling such products,” said Khaled Khan, marketing manager at the head office of Toys-R-Us in Jeddah.
Arab News also contacted the international infant bottle manufacturers responsible for supplying products in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and got this response from only one of the companies contacted. “Philips Avent reusable bottles, such as AirFlex, are made from polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic is approved for use and lawful for sale in every country where Philips Avent products are sold,” said Vincenzo Ventricelli, director of customer marketing. “The effects of leached BPA have been studied extensively by regulatory agencies, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the FDA, which indicate that they actively review the safety of BPA and have recently completed a review of available data.
But what about the other stores who aren’t related to US or Europe-based companies? What is the Ministry of Commerce’s stance on the findings and what are they doing about consumer safety? Arab News attempted to contact Fahd Al-Huthaili, assistant general director at the General Department for Combating Commercial Fraud at the Ministry of Commerce in Riyadh. Several attempts by phone and fax produced no response. In the meantime, global health experts have advised mothers choosing to bottle-feed their babies to avoid using plastic bottles completely and instead switch to glass bottles until the doubts over the safety of BPA are resolved one way or the other.
