A bill to ban BPA – bisphenol-A, a chemical found in plastic products – narrowly passed the California Senate but fell short of the needed votes to pass in the California Assembly. I was hoping that California would set the standard for protection against BPA, but I guess we’ll still have to wait and see. They’ve postponed the vote until later today…

There has been a nationwide hubbub about BPA since it has been linked to numerous health problems, including heart disease, cancer, infertility, diabetes and neurological disorders, to name just a few.

BPA was never meant to be ingested by the human body but has been found to leach from containers into foods and beverages. In 2007, the Center for Disease Control found that 93% of Americans have BPA in their urine. More shockingly, because babies and young children metabolize the chemical more slowly than adults, the risks to their bodies are greater.

The debate over BPA, both the argument that current levels are safe as well as the overwhelming INDEPENDENT evidence that BPA is harmful, is so controversial that the FDA is investigating the matter further and will disclose their findings in November…until then, each state is left to wade through the battle alone.

If you think about it, if a chemical is currently present in our bodies that was never meant to be in our bodies in the first place, shouldn’t something be done to ensure that that chemical no longer can get into our bodies? And, to me, to start with baby products is just a no brainer – those helpless, completely dependent beings rely on us to look out for them!

I’ll keep you posted on what California as well as the FDA decide.

photo credit: pfly