FDA Throwing BPA Panel Under the Bus
On Friday The FDA Science Board, a group of outside experts, backed up critics who found major flaws in the agency's decision to declare BPA safe for babies. According to USA Today:
The science board agreed with the finding that that the FDA was wrong to base its August decision that BPA is safe only on studies funded by the chemical industry. Excluded studies suggest that BPA, which acts like the hormone estrogen, could pose harm to children at levels at least 10 times lower than what the agency allows.
Sonya Lunder of the Environmental Working Group points out that "BPA was initially used as a sex hormone. It should never have been allowed to come into contact with infant formula."
FDA Commissioner throws up his hands
FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach was nonplussed.
"We would not have asked them (the science board) to do this if we weren't open to listening and learning from this input and incorporating it into our decision-making," von Eschenbach says.
In a presentation to the science board, he said, "There's no shame in having one's hypothesis or previous tenets questioned or disproved. That's the purpose of science: to test hypotheses and theses appropriately and have a healthy debate about where the data do and do not lead us."
Right. In other words, scratch that August report and let's start over.
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More in USA TodayBackground on BPA:BPA Update: Canada Declares it Toxic, FDA Chair's Donor was Michigan's "First Polluter"FDA Chair Studying BPA Took $5 Million Donation From BPA SupporterFinal Report on Bisphenol A: It May Harm KidsFDA Says BPA Is Safe For BabiesBisphenol A: How Wal-Mart Became the New FDAQuotes of the Day: Opinions on the FDA Declaring BPA SafeDon't Buy A Nalgene Water Bottle Until You Read ThisNalgene Dumps Bisphenol A Like Hot Potato :Possible Effects of BPAMore Bad News About Bisphenol A: It Interferes with Chemotherapy TreatmentsYet Another Bisphenol A Pile-on: Linked to Heart Disease, Diabetes and Liver ProblemsNew Study: BPA May Make You Stupid and DepressedSources of BPA:Bisphenol A Is In Your Tomato SauceBisphenol A Could Be In Your TeethBPA Danger may be greater from Tin Cans than Water BottlesPolycarbonate Water bottlesCanada Calls Bisphenol A "Dangerous" Time to Pack In the PolycarbonatesBottled Water - Lifting the Lid :MEC Nixes Nalgenes
