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Canada Confirms Labeling of BPA “Toxic”

Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement announced yesterday that Canada would ban bisphenol, also known as BPA, in baby bottles as well as asking formula makers to reduce leaching from cans, the Globe and Mail reports today.

This represents a tough stand on bottles but a fairly soft one on other products which affect infants and young children - sippy cups, utensils, tableware, pacifiers, and teethers. It suggests there may be no ffirm requirements for eliminating BPA from formula containers or glass baby food jar lids.

From the Mail:

• Although the government doesn’t expect to formally ban polycarbonate baby bottles for another year, the use of the product is coming to a rapid end in Canada anyway.
• Throughout the week, retailers across the country took the nearly unprecedented step of stripping their shelves of polycarbonate bottles used by infants and adults in the face of overwhelming consumer rejection of the product.
• Canada on its own has never taken an international lead to ban the use of controversial substances. The move against bisphenol A, which is able to mimic the female hormone estrogen, is being compared with decisions made by the United States and other countries more than 30 years ago to curb the use of the insecticide DDT - the first major chemical challenged on public health and environmental grounds