The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has released its Top 10 Unfounded Health Scares of 2008 list-and near the top sits the bisphenol A controversy.
ACSH’s core mission is to “counter misleading and alarmist health news” in print, broadcast and online media. “Unfortunately, old scares seem neither to die nor fade away,” states the report. “Once again we see alarmist groups exploiting the understandable desire of parents to protect their children by trumpeting hyperbole about the supposed dangers in toys, baby bottles, and sippy cups.”
The BPA controversy sits at number two, following phthalates. “While there is no scientific evidence that BPA causes human health problems at the low levels we are exposed to every day,” says the report, “the future of the chemical does not look good because the scare has fueled consumer demand for products that do not contain BPA.”
“But as with phthalates, any replacement chemical will not have been as thoroughly studied and scrutinized as BPA has been, which may result in actual safety issues in the future.”
In October, Canada decided to ban BPA in baby bottles.
