The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last weekend that the Environmental Protection Agency delayed regulation of the controversial chemical bisphenol A – known as BPA – just eight days after industry lobbyists met with White House officials and "aggressively pleaded its case that BPA should not be flagged for greater regulation."
Hundreds of studies have linked the chemical, which lines most food and beverage cans, to a litany of health problems, including cancer. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration reversed its 2008 conclusion that BPA was safe for everyone. (That decision, the Journal Sentinel reported previously in its series on BPA, was based on two studies paid for by the chemical industry.) And the National Toxicology Program has also expressed concern about BPA's effect on fetuses and children, after analyzing 700 studies.
On Dec. 30, the EPA – which, the Journal Sentinel noted, has "a broader regulatory reach [than the FDA] when it comes to chemicals" – produced its list of chemicals that would be subject to stricter regulation. BPA was not on it, which surprised some, given that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has publicly singled out BPA as high on her list of chemicals deserving tougher regulation. Now the agency says "it won't develop a tougher regulatory plan for the chemical for at least two years" (in the words of the Journal Sentinel).
rest at http://www.propublica.org/article/did-lobbyists-push-off-regulation-of-a-controversial-chemical
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