The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA; www.efsa.europa.eu) has declined to revise its Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) recommendations for the controversial bisphenol A (BPA), used among other things as a feedstock for polycarbonate. The authority published its latest scientific opinion on BPA, drawn up at the request of the European Commission, following a delay of several months – see Plasteurope.com of 22.02.2010. The TDI set by EFSA in 2006 and reconfirmed in 2008 and 2010 is 0.05mg per kilogram of body weight. On the basis of currently available data, EFSA’s panel of experts found no new evidence that would warrant amending its recommendations. Although the panel acknowledged that some of the studies it examined suggested possible adverse effects on animals exposed to BPA during development, at doses well below those used to determine the current TDI, it added that these – including the Stump study, on which Denmark based its temporary ban on BPA in children's food packaging (Plasteurope.com of 09.04.2010) – had “many shortcomings.”

EFSA said it had held consultations in recent months with several international risk assessment authorities, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO). The European organisation also plans to contribute to an expert consultation on safety to be organised next month by WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) welcomed EFSA’s decision, remarking that “the bisphenol A discussion has become highly politicised in recent years and in some countries has become divorced from the reality and nature of its use.”