WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers are investigating the relationship the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may have with the chemical industry regarding the FDA’s draft assessment that bisphenol A (BPA) is safe, an October 24 USA Today article reports.

The congressional action was launched in part after The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the FDA’s assessment of BPA was based on reports from the plastics industry and those with a financial stake in the chemical used to harden plastics, such as polycarbonate water bottles.

The findings of the FDA draft report are at odds with the conclusions of the FDA’s own advisers from the National Toxicology Program (NTP), who announced in September that the chemical is of “some concern” relating to the development of the brain, behavior and the prostate gland in fetuses, infants and children.

The Journal Sentinel reported that the FDA will not reveal who prepared its draft assessment on BPA, but FDA documents obtained by the newspaper show that the work was done primarily by those with ties to the chemical industry, including Stephen Hentges of the chemical manufacturer trade association American Chemistry Council’s group on bisphenol A.

The newspaper reported that Hentges commissioned a review of all studies of the neurotoxicity of the chemical and submitted it to the FDA. “The FDA then used that report as the foundation for its evaluation of the chemical on neural and behavioral development,” the Journal Sentinel reported.

The Journal Sentinel also reported that the congressional committee also is evaluating the role that an FDA-hired consulting group, Virginia-based ICF International, had in preparing the draft. Other ICF clients include the American Chemistry Council and the American Petroleum Institute.

Also being scrutinized is the fact that the chairman of the FDA subcommittee that is reviewing the FDA’s assessment of BPA heads a research center that has accepted a $5 million gift from a retired medical device manufacturer who says BPA is safe. BPA is used in the manufacture of some medical devices.

The Journal Sentinel reported that FDA subcommittee chairman Martin Philbert received $5 million from Charles Gelman, who told the Journal Sentinel that he had expressed his views that BPA is “perfectly safe” to Philbert in several conversations. “Philbert at first denied ever having been contacted by Gelman about bisphenol A. He now says that he is aware of Gelman’s views but is not influenced by them,” the newspaper reported.

The subcommittee’s review of the BPA report was expected to be released any day with a presentation in Washington on October 31. Consumer advocacy groups, including the Environmental Working Group (EWG), have said that many scientific studies suggest BPA may cause serious harm. The EWG issued a statement on October 23 saying that the Journal Sentinel’s investigative report “proves a glaring conflict of interest that should render the draft meaningless.”

The Canadian government on October 18 declared that BPA is a toxin and that it is banning its use in baby bottles, as WaterTech Online™ reported, and attorneys general from Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware have asked 11 companies to stop using BPA in baby bottles and formula cans, USA Today reported.

To read the full USA Today article, click here.

To read the full Journal Sentinel report, click here.

For related information on this story, click here.

Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, concerns about the use of bisphenol A in consumer products grabbed headlines in 2008 when several governments issued reports questioning its safety, and some retailers pulled products made from it off their shelves.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic resins, epoxy resins, and other products.


esearchers tested more than 2000 people between the ages of six and 85. And 93 percent of them tested positive for BPA, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.