Europe Tightens 'Gender Bender' Chemical Rules

Europe has tightened controls on a "gender bender" chemical present in food and drinks which has been linked to breast cancer, fertility problems and other illnesses.

The European Commission announced a ban on the manufacture of baby bottles containing Bisphenol A, or BPA, on 1 March next year and their importation and sale on 1 June.

Many companies have already removed the plastics hardener from baby bottles, but it remains in the lids of jars of baby foods as well as in a wide array of consumer products including tinned food, fizzy drinks, till receipts, mobile phones and computers.

The ban announced by he European Commissioner for Health, John Dalli, brings European regulation closer into line with US action. After years of insisting BPA was safe, the US Food and Drug Administration announced in January it had "some concern" about its potential effects on the brain, behaviour and the prostate glands of foetuses, babies and young children, and called for industry to remove it.

Independently-funded scientists suggest BPA poses a risk to human health, particularly among babies and infants with undeveloped immune systems. Some scientists fear it could cause a range of diseases, including breast and prostate cancers as well as attention deficit disorders, fertility problems and obesity – all of which are rising in the West.

Until now Europe has always agreed with tests funded by the chemicals industry showing that BPA was safe. In September, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) disregarded many independent peer-reviewed studies in favour of these industry studies, adding that there were still uncertainties about the substance. France and Denmark, did not agree with the EFSA and refused to revoke their own bans on BPA in baby bottles.