OTTAWA -- The government announced Friday that Canada will be the first country to ban plastic baby bottles with bisphenol A after concluding the chemical is toxic.
City firm positioned to cash in on ban
Health Minister Tony Clement unveiled the "precautionary and prudent" move while trying to calm fears with a limited ban of the widely used chemical, also found in hard plastic sports bottles and tin cans of food and infant formula. Most Canadians "need not be concerned" about the health effects of bisphenol A, but Clement said "this is not the case for newborns and infants."
"We have concluded that early development is sensitive to the effects of bisphenol A," Clement, joined by Environment Minister John Baird, told an audience, including moms and babies.
"Although our science tells us that exposure levels to newborns and infants are below the levels that cause effects, we believe that the current safety margin needs to be higher. We have concluded that it is better to be safe than sorry."
The main source of exposure for babies is through migration of bisphenol A from boiling water poured into polycarbonate baby bottles and from can linings for liquid infant formula.
Research on laboratory animals shows that bisphenol A is an estrogenic hormone disrupter that causes reproductive damage and may lead to prostate and breast cancer in adulthood.
Clement said canned infant formula remains a concern, but government will work with industry to establish codes of practice to reduce the amount of bisphenol A in the linings of cans and set migration targets for the toxin.
Judy Wasylycia-Leis, health critic for the New Democrats, said this sends a confusing message to parents; the NDP welcomes a partial ban, but wants the ban to extend to all food and beverage containers with BPA, including all products designed to feed infants.
"The minister has left people in a very precarious position, claiming it's a toxic substance, but not making a firm recommendation to parents not to use any product with bisphenol A."
The proposed baby-bottle ban and recommendation to list bisphenol A as a toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act is now subject to a 60-day public-consultation period.
The plastics industry had petitioned Ottawa to keep bisphenol A on the market as part of this ongoing risk assessment. It now has two months to present any new information.
If none is forthcoming, the chemical will be declared officially a toxin, and a ban of plastic baby bottles with BPA will be in place within 12 months.
This will mark the first time Ottawa uses the toxin designation under the environmental protection law to ban a consumer product.
"As minister of the environment, I firmly believe that leadership means going first. Clearly, our government is willing to take bold steps to make this tough decision to protect the health of Canadians, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable," Baird said.
The Conservatives announced a comprehensive review of 200 potentially dangerous chemicals, including bisphenol A, early in its mandate as part of a plan to upstage the Liberals in an area where they failed to act during their long tenure in government -- the regulation of chemicals that are harmful to human health or the environment.
Environmental and consumer-rights organizations were quick on Friday to praise the move as unprecedented and internationally significant.
"This is a decisive step. It is a precedent-setting step. Canada becomes the first jurisdiction in the world to take action with the toxic chemical, and this sends a clear message to the plastics industry that it needs to be reformulating its products," said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence.
-- Canwest News Service
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