Witch Hunt Continues on Bisphenol A

This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yet again reaffirmed the safety of the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), but the witch hunt for evidence against BPA safety continues. Environmental activists and others still won’t accept the findings — encouraging more government spending to study the chemical. But no matter how much the feds spend, researchers are unlikely to find anything new to  condemn BPA.

Human exposure to BPA — which is used to make hard, clear plastics and resins used to line food cans and other things — is simply too low to have public health impacts. FDA’s most recent update notes: “The Food and Drug Administration’s assessment is that the scientific evidence at this time does not suggest that the very low levels of human exposure to BPA through the diet are unsafe.”

FDA’s conclusion echoes findings issued by numerous governmental and scientific bodies around the world. For example, research studies in the European Union, Japan, Canada, and the World Health Organization have all found BPA risks to be negligible. In fact, studies have shown that the human body metabolizes BPA quickly, passing it though the body without any impacts. But never mind the facts. Greens want more of your hard earned tax dollars to fund more BPA research, even though it’s already one of the most studied chemicals ever!

Let’s just hope that researchers continue to report honest findings that allow BPA to stay on the market rather than cave to political pressures. If regulators devise phony science and excuses to regulate, public health and well being may suffer — as documented in our study on the topic.