Answering Questions
In recent years, many claims have been made about the health effects of BPA. Extensive scientific data about BPA provides consumers with information about BPA safety and help put public confusion about BPA into perspective:
If I buy a “BPA-free” product, is it safer?
There is no scientific basis to say that BPA-free products are safer than products with BPA. “Free of” claims are used to indicate that a product does not contain a certain material, such as BPA, but they can sometimes be misleading. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has specifically cautioned that “free-of claims may deceive consumers by falsely suggesting that … the marketer has ‘improved’ the product by removing the substance.”
The FDA confirms that “the use of BPA in food packaging and containers is safe” and that “BPA is safe at the very low levels that occur in some foods.”
Is there concern that exposure to BPA can cause harm or result in serious diseases?
While there have been many hundreds of studies on BPA, none has shown a direct cause-and-effect relationship between BPA and any human health effects.
When government scientists review studies to make a safety recommendation, they look at the “weight of the evidence,” meaning the information available from all sources, and how well each study was conducted. The issue is not the quantity of studies, but their quality and the scientific value. Studies are different, and are not of the same quality. Some are conducted according to internationally recognized standards that ensure methodological and statistical reliability, and others are not.
Government regulators have the responsibility of reviewing all studies and considering issues like study design and quality and whether the result of any particular study was repeated in other studies. In the United States, FDA is the agency charged with this review for food contact applications. As recently as February 2016, FDA updated its perspective on BPA, answering the question: “Is BPA safe?” with one word: “Yes”.
For more information: http://www.factsaboutbpa.org/bpa-overview/myths-realities.
