What’s for dinner?

“The canned foods tested were brand name fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tomato products, sodas, and milks, which together represent “real-life” meal options for many consumers. The cans were purchased from retail stores and gathered from the pantry shelves of coalition partners. They were then sent to an independent laboratory for testing. One can of DelMonte green beans had the highest levels of BPA ever found in canned food, at 1,140 parts per billion.

Bobbi Chase Wilding of Clean New York and a report co-author stated, “I was pregnant with my second child at the time of this study, and I hate to think I exposed her to BPA through the canned foods I ate, especially when there is evidence that even small amounts of this chemical can cross the placenta and impact prenatal development.”

BPA is in the inside lining of most canned foods in North America, and in other polycarbonate containers, like water bottles and baby bottles. BPA has been found in the urine of over 90% of Americans by the Center for Disease Control, and in the cord blood of newborn babies. Exposure to low doses of BPA have been linked to illnesses that are on the rise in the US, including breast and prostate cancer, abnormal behavior, diabetes and heart disease, infertility, developmental and reproductive harm, and obesity, which raises the risk of early puberty, a known risk factor for breast cancer.

Amy Halsted is an expectant mother from Brunswick and very concerned about how toxic chemicals will impact the health of her new baby. Halsted stated, “The evidence against BPA is overwhelming and damning. Safer alternatives are already being used. This chemical is so dangerous that it needs to be flat-out banned from products made for children.”

Five other states have already banned BPA in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups, some have banned its use in infant formula cans and sports bottles, and action is pending in at least a dozen others. Denmark recently banned BPA in all infant food packaging while Canada and France have banned BPA in baby bottles. Japan asked manufacturers for voluntary restriction of BPA from canned food in 1998 and saw a decline in their population’s levels of contamination.

Steve Taylor, Campaign Coordinator for the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, said the report just reinforces his group’s recent call for an immediate ban on BPA in Maine. Taylor stated, “BPA is one of the worst-of-the-worst toxic chemicals. Yet it is widely used and almost impossible to avoid. As the scientific evidence against BPA continues to grow, Maine law only allows action against BPA in baby products. But that may fall far short of what’s needed to protect public health. Clearly we need to look harder for alternatives to BPA in all cans and food packaging.”

No Silver Lining test results show there is no consistency in the amount of BPA in specific food brands or in types of food, which prevents consumers from being able to avoid BPA canned foods just by looking at a label. For example, two different cans of the same brand of peas with two separate “lot numbers” were drastically different: one had six parts per billion of BPA, while the other had over 300 parts per billion of BPA.

“BPA is a bad actor chemical that should not be in contact with food we eat,” says Laura Vandenberg, PhD, Tufts University, a leading BPA researcher. “Hundreds of independent peer-reviewed scientific studies have found harm from low doses of BPA. The levels found in this study are definitely concerning, and indicate that the time has come to remove this chemical from food cans.”

Because there is no federal law banning the use of BPA in food and drink containers, advocates also pointed to the need for action from Washington. Taylor added, “Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have at least two options before them to help solve the BPA problem. They can support an amendment to the Food Safety Modernization Act that will ban BPA in cans and other food and beverage containers. And they can co-sponsor the Safe Chemicals Act, which is modeled on Maine law and designed to overhaul our broken federal chemical safety system. We’re counting on them to help protect Maine children and adults.”

The full report can be found at http://www.contaminatedwithoutconsent.org/nosilverlining.php

A press release of the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine -a coalition of over 40 public health, environmental, and public interest organizations dedicated to phasing out long-lived toxic chemicals that build up in the food web and in our bodies. www.cleanandhealthyme.org