BISPHENOL A
FDA under pressure as Europe moves to revise TDI for BPA / Critics claim Americans are “overexposed”
 The US population is said to be overexposed to BPA by more than 5,000 times (Photo: Panthermedia/PixelsAway) |
With the EU poised to dramatically revise its guidance on recommended total daily intake (TDI) of the plastics additive bisphenol A, reflecting new insights into its possible role as an endocrine disruptor (see Plasteurope.com of 27.01.2022), the pressure is now on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action as well.
In a petition organised by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF; www.edf.org) and sent to the agency, a coalition of scientists, physicians and environmental groups said the US federal government should take “immediate steps” to curb the exposure of Americans to the chemical.
The US population is “overexposed to BPA by more than 5,000 times”, said Tom Neltner, EDF’s senior director for safer chemicals, citing figures he said were based on the health watchdog’s own estimate. The agency “must make this a top priority and make a final decision within 180 days”.
“The process the European Food Safety Authority [EFSA] used to reassess the safety of bisphenol A is a template for how FDA should be doing it for the hundreds of chemicals it approved decades ago. Transparent, thorough and grounded in the science,” Neltner added.
Related: US study shows bisphenol A substitutes in urine correlate with obesity
Earlier, Pete Myers, chief scientist for Environmental Health Sciences and publisher of the journal Environmental Health News, while acknowledging that EFSA took more than a decade to revise its own guidance, said the EU is still “far ahead” of the US in cutting acceptable BPA levels in food and other applications. In 1988, he noted, the FDA set the safe daily exposure level at 50 µg/kg of body weight, and it is still unchanged.
Myers accused the FDA of “stacking the deck against findings from independent scientists studying BPA and other compounds substituted in products claimed to be BPA-free” but also continuing to use “decades-old study methods” that fail to detect effects known to be associated with the additive.
That the chief US health agency will revisit the topic of BPA within the next 180 days or even later this year appears doubtful, in particular as the FDA itself is still without a chief. Some observers suggest that appointing a new director does not appear to have been as high a priority on the “to-do” list of the administration of President Joe Biden as the appointment of a new head for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; www.epa.gov), which itself took longer than expected.
As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to occupy the FDA’s attention, interim head Janet Woodcock, who was first thought to be a shoo-in to take the top job permanently, has tripped over pharmaceutical pricing. Meanwhile, the approval of Robert Califf, who led the agency under former President Barack Obama and became Biden’s nominee for the FDA position, is also taking longer than planned. First it was held up by a technical error in the government’s filing, and now the nomination also may face opposition in Congress.
In a petition organised by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF; www.edf.org) and sent to the agency, a coalition of scientists, physicians and environmental groups said the US federal government should take “immediate steps” to curb the exposure of Americans to the chemical.
The US population is “overexposed to BPA by more than 5,000 times”, said Tom Neltner, EDF’s senior director for safer chemicals, citing figures he said were based on the health watchdog’s own estimate. The agency “must make this a top priority and make a final decision within 180 days”.
“The process the European Food Safety Authority [EFSA] used to reassess the safety of bisphenol A is a template for how FDA should be doing it for the hundreds of chemicals it approved decades ago. Transparent, thorough and grounded in the science,” Neltner added.
Related: US study shows bisphenol A substitutes in urine correlate with obesity
Earlier, Pete Myers, chief scientist for Environmental Health Sciences and publisher of the journal Environmental Health News, while acknowledging that EFSA took more than a decade to revise its own guidance, said the EU is still “far ahead” of the US in cutting acceptable BPA levels in food and other applications. In 1988, he noted, the FDA set the safe daily exposure level at 50 µg/kg of body weight, and it is still unchanged.
Myers accused the FDA of “stacking the deck against findings from independent scientists studying BPA and other compounds substituted in products claimed to be BPA-free” but also continuing to use “decades-old study methods” that fail to detect effects known to be associated with the additive.
That the chief US health agency will revisit the topic of BPA within the next 180 days or even later this year appears doubtful, in particular as the FDA itself is still without a chief. Some observers suggest that appointing a new director does not appear to have been as high a priority on the “to-do” list of the administration of President Joe Biden as the appointment of a new head for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; www.epa.gov), which itself took longer than expected.
As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to occupy the FDA’s attention, interim head Janet Woodcock, who was first thought to be a shoo-in to take the top job permanently, has tripped over pharmaceutical pricing. Meanwhile, the approval of Robert Califf, who led the agency under former President Barack Obama and became Biden’s nominee for the FDA position, is also taking longer than planned. First it was held up by a technical error in the government’s filing, and now the nomination also may face opposition in Congress.
02.02.2022 Plasteurope.com [249549-0]
Published on 02.02.2022