Breaking News: EPA to investigate environmental impact of BPA

 By Marla Cone

Editor in Chief

Environmental Health News

Declaring it a “chemical of concern,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced that it is mounting an investigation of the environmental effects of bisphenol A.

The EPA will require industry to conduct testing of the chemical related to its effects on aquatic animals and other wildlife. It also will require some monitoring of drinking water supplies.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, will be added to the list of four “chemicals of concern” that EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson named in late December. The decision “signals EPA’s concern about the risks that the listed chemicals may pose and the agency’s intention to address those risks,” EPA officials said.

The EPA’s announcement comes two months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shifted its stance and announced a similar investigation of BPA in food and beverage packaging.

“We share FDA’s concern about the potential health impacts from BPA,” Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, said in a press release. “Both EPA and FDA, and many other agencies are moving forward to fully assess the environmental and health impacts to ensure that the full range of BPA’s possible impacts are examined.”

Most human exposure to BPA, an ingredient of polycarbonate plastic, comes from bottles and canned foods. But exposure also comes from non-food packaging, which falls outside of the FDA’s authority.

Unlike FDA, EPA has authority over the potential environmental impacts of BPA. Releases of BPA to the environment exceed 1 million pounds per year.

Animal tests show that BPA is an estrogen-like chemical that causes reproductive and developmental effects. In humans, the chemical is linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The chemical and plastics industries have said that BPA has been widely used for more than 50 years and that there is insufficient data linking it to any  health effects.

The EPA said its action plan on the environmental impacts of BPA includes:

• Adding BPA to the chemical concern list on the basis of potential environmental effects.
• Requiring information on concentrations of BPA in surface water, ground water, and drinking water to determine if BPA may be present at levels of potential concern.
• Requiring manufacturers to provide test data to assist the agency in evaluating its possible impacts, including long-term effects on growth, reproduction, and development in aquatic organisms and wildlife.
• Using EPA’s Design for the Environment program to look for ways to reduce unnecessary exposures, including assessing substitutes, while additional studies continue.
• And, continuing to evaluate the potential disproportionate impact on children and other sub-populations through exposure from non-food packaging uses.

"Based on what this new research shows, EPA will consider possible regulatory actions to address health impacts from these other exposures,” the agency said in a press release.

Designating substances as "chemicals of concern" is the EPA's effort to use the Toxic Substances Control Act, enacted in 1976, in a new way. Jackson has said that the law is outdated and needs reform.

When BPA was left off the list in December, some media and lawmakers speculated that it was because EPA officials had recently met with plastics industry officials. 

 More information on EPA’s BPA action plan is available at http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals