FDA to decide on BPA in consumer products by end of March 2012

As part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency has agreed to rule on whether the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) should be banned from use in food and beverage packaging.

The new settlement requires the FDA to decide on BPA use by the end of March 2012.

The lawsuit against the FDA was brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. nonprofit environmental advocacy group, which filed a petition with the FDA in 2008 requesting that BPA be banned as a food additive.

When the FDA failed to reply in the timeframe required by law – at most 180 days – the NRDC took its case to court.

BPA can be found in the linings of beer or soda cans, vegetable or soup cans and liquid infant formula containers as well as consumer products made from polycarbonate plastics, including reusable water bottles. The controversy surrounding BPA stems from claims of a link between BPA and health conditions in humans. In 2008, a report by the U.S. National Toxicology Program expressed some concerns about the chemical’s health effects on just fetuses, infants, and children. In early December 2011, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the use of BPA in food packaging applications isn’t a threat to human health.