In October 2008, the Canadian government took the first steps to ban products containing the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), a common compound found in plastics, because of its adverse effects on human health. The North American National Toxicology Program, after examining 400 recent studies on the effects of BPA, identified “some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children” and “some concern for exposure in these populations based on effects in the prostate gland, mammary gland, and an earlier age for puberty in females”.

On March 13 this year, the US Senate proposed a bill banning the use of BPA and, in a pre-emptive strike, a number of large chain department stores stopped stocking infant products containing BPA. Six of the major baby-bottle manufacturers in the US have now switched to BPA-free plastics. Even more significantly, one of the major international chemical producers has declared it will no longer supply BPA to manufacturers for use in products designed for children under three years of age.

In Australia, the issue of BPA has received less attention and many suppliers of plastic goods don’t even know what BPA is, let alone whether or not their products contain it. Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) claims to have “a close eye” on research concerning the health risks of BPA and is monitoring the developments in Canada and the US. However, FSANZ’s stance on BPA at present is based on a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) study that set a “safe” limit for exposure to BPA and concluded that the amount of BPA we consume via plastic containers and canned foods is below that threshold.

To date, the official word on BPA in Australia is that the use of BPA in food packaging and drink containers “does not pose a significant health risk”, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary. Many Australians are still in the dark about BPA. So what is it? How does it affect health? Should we be avoiding products containing BPA and, if so, how do we identify them? These are all questions every parent should know the answers to.