WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its position on the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles, soda cans, food containers and thousands of consumer goods, saying it now has concerns about health risks.
Growing scientific evidence has linked the chemical to a range of problems, from cancer to sexual dysfunction to heart disease. Federal officials said they are particularly concerned about BPA’s effect on the development of fetuses, infants and young children.
“We have some concern, which leads us to recommend reasonable steps the public can take to reduce exposure to BPA,” Joshua Sharfstein, FDA’s deputy commissioner, said in a conference call to reporters Friday. They include discarding scratched baby bottles and infant feeding cups and not putting very hot liquid into bottles containing BPA while preparing them for a child.
Regulators stopped short of banning the compound or even requiring manufacturers to label products containing BPA, saying current data are not clear enough to support a legal crackdown. FDA officials also said they were hamstrung from dealing quickly with BPA and other additives by an outdated regulatory framework.
Sharfstein said the agency is conducting “targeted” studies of BPA, part of a two-year, $30 million effort by the administration to answer key questions about the chemical.
BPA, used to harden plastics, is so prevalent that more than 90 percent of the U.S. population has traces of it in urine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers have found that BPA leaches from containers into food and beverages, even at cold temperatures.