France bans bisphenol-A in baby bottles

Yvon Collin, the left-wing senator which put forward the law, proposed a ban on BPA in all plastic products that come into contact to food. The bill was amended by the senate before being passed.

Several groups in France are campaigning for the blanket ban on the chemical, which has been linked to problems including cancer, diabetes and male fertility problems, and feel that the ban on BPA in baby bottles does not go far enough.

André Cicolella from the Réseau environnement santé called the law “illogical”.

“It is absurd to want to project babies fed by bottle but not worry about babies that are breastfed,” he said.

Meanwhile EFSA, which is charged with delivering scientific advice to the European Commission, has delayed its latest opinion on bisphenol-A to take on board the latest scientific findings.

Back in March this year, EFSA held a meeting with national experts on BPA from several EU Member States and members of its scientific Panel on food contact materials, enzymes, flavourings and processing aids (CEF Panel). At that meeting, EFSA outlined the CEF Panel’s draft opinion on BPA and called on national experts to submit any new evidence for consideration in its final opinion.

The CEF Panel was due to deliver that opinion at the end of last month (May) but this has now been put back to early July to allow it to consider additional data that has been published in recent months, as well as some of the scientific arguments behind decisions made by individual European governments.

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