In an article published on January 26, 2016 the non-profit organization Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) reports about their submitted comments to the European Commission’s (EC) roadmap on the use of bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) in food contact materials (FMCs). The BPA roadmap was published in November 2015 by the EC’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and presents five options for EU-wide regulation of BPA in FCMs (FPF reported). HEAL welcomes DG SANTE’s examination of BPA in FCMs and sees this action as “urgently needed and long overdue.” To effectively reduce the public’s exposures, “a ban at EU level on all bisphenols with suspected hormone disrupting properties for FCM is necessary,” HEAL states. This would go beyond option 5 in the roadmap (i.e. EU-wide ban of BPA in all FCMs). Further, HEAL addresses the consultation process of the roadmap and claims that “full transparency is lacking.” Also, HEAL points out “the prominence of the discussion about the concerns and interests of industry, and lack of mention or discussion about public health concerns from BPA throughout the whole document.”
The EC has decided to focus on option 3 in the roadmap, which foresees adjusting the specific migration limit (SML) for BPA and would apply to plastic FCMs as well as coatings and varnishes (FPF reported).
Read more
HEAL (January 26, 2016). “HEAL submission on BPA Roadmap and food packing.”
HEAL (January 26, 2016). “HEAL input to DG SANTE roadmap BPA.” (pdf)
