After long delays and three missed deadlines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally expressed “some concern” about the potential effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on fetuses and young children, thereby reversing the agency’s controversial 2008 ruling that BPA is “safe for all uses” and giving hope to parents and other concerned consumers that the widely used industrial chemical may eventually be regulated.

All the FDA actually did by saying that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children” was to adopt the position taken nearly two years ago by the National Toxicology Program.

The FDA placed no restrictions on the use of BPA, nor did it propose to regulate the chemical, even though numerous independent studies have shown BPA to have serious potential health effects. BPA is so widely used and so easily absorbed that it has been found in the umbilical cord blood of fetuses, the blood and breast milk of pregnant women and new mothers, and the urine of more than 90 percent of people who were tested. Go figure!

Please read your labels and be your own health advocate. Little Sprouts carries Green to Grow bottles which are BPA and phthalate free. We also carry Lifefactory’s Wee Go glass bottles. For older children and adults, we recommend Klean Kanteens stainless steel bottles which have absolutely no chemicals used in their production.