Urge Your Senator to Protect Kids from BPA!

BPA has been linked to many chronic diseases and disorders -- and fetuses, babies, and children are especially vulnerable. Please urge your Senators to co-sponsor the "BPA Act" and support amending it to the Food Safety Modernization Act.

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Dear Friend, I just took action with MomsRising on an urgent food safety issue. I hope you will take action too! Here's some more information: After way too many food recalls and contamination scares in everything from peanut butter to spinach, Congress is taking action. The U.S. Senate is about to consider a critical food safety bill that would ramp up protections against food contamination like E.coli and salmonella. This is already an incredibly important bill for moms and families, and it is backed by unusually strong bipartisan support- but there’s even more to this story. In addition to addressing the potential risks of accidental food contamination, the Senate is also poised to address other hidden dangers lurking inside most food cans. Specifically, the Senate could address the food packaging additive Bisphenol-A (BPA), which leaches from bottles and cans into our food and our kids, causing significant health risks. MomsRising has been working hard across the country to protect our kids from BPA exposure. Now we have a unique opportunity to include a BPA phase-out, along with other measures for making food safer, in the Food Safety bill- and we need your help TODAY to make it happen. Urge your U.S. Senators to co-sponsor the Ban Poisonous Additives Act that will ban BPA from food and beverage containers – and then ask them to support amending it to the Food Safety Modernization Act so everyone, especially our kids, will be protected. http://action.momsrising.org/go/letter_27254/103?akid=.7.FhFtKK&t=4&source=taf Getting BPA out of food and drinks is an urgent food safety issue. Effects of BPA exposure can include breast cancer, infertility, prostate cancer, early onset puberty, ADHD, and obesity. Children, whose brains and organs are constantly developing, are particularly at risk and absorb BPA at much higher rates than their parents. Early exposure puts children at risk for adult diseases later in life, including breast cancer and Alzheimer's. [1] According to the CDC 93% of Americans are contaminated with BPA and, not surprisingly, according to the National Institutes of Health, a primary source of our exposure to BPA is food. Fortunately the market has responded to consumer concern about BPA and there are safer alternatives available today. But not everyone knows about or has access to BPA-free products. Ask your Senators to stand up for safe food for our kids by co-sponsoring the BPA Act, and support amending it to the Food Safety Modernization Act! http://action.momsrising.org/go/letter_27254/103?akid=.7.FhFtKK&t=6&source=taf With all the progress we've made in the last few months getting the spotlight on this important issue, the timing couldn't be better for national change. Federal action is needed right now to protect everyone in the country from BPA, and we need your help to make that happen. Don't forget to take a moment right now to urge your Senators to Co-Sponsor the BPA Act TODAY, and then forward this message on to your friends: http://action.momsrising.org/go/letter_27254/103?akid=.7.FhFtKK&t=8&source=taf Together, we can help make this a safer, healthier country for families across America. -- Ariana, Claire, Joan, Kristin, Donna, Sarah and the whole MomsRising.org team P.S. Thanks to our friends at The Breast Cancer Fund for their extraordinary work on this issue. Footnotes: [1] The Breast Cancer Fund Information on BPA http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/chemicals-glossary/bisphenol-a.html?source=taf

Dear Senator,

As a member of MomsRising.org, a national organization of more than a million members committed to building a family-friendly America, I am writing to urge you to support the Ban Poisonous Additives Act and support amending it to the Food Safety Modernization Act. S.593, sponsored by Senator Feinstein, which would phase out the use of the toxic and hormonally active chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) from food and beverage containers regulated by the FDA. Getting BPA out of food is an urgent food safety issue that demands your immediate attention.

The Senate is expected to vote soon on a food safety bill that only looks at external sources of contamination like E.coli and salmonella when there are dangers lurking inside the can itself.  Packaging additives like BPA are leaching from cans into food and then into people exposing – in the process -- our kids and our families to an unsafe, highly estrogenic extrogenic chemical.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most pervasive chemicals in modern life. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies.  Given its estrogenic properties, BPA was tested as a hormone therapy for women going through menopause in the 1930s but was discarded for other therapies.   Shortly thereafter chemists discovered they could also use BPA to make plastic. Now BPA is the chemical building block for polycarbonate plastic and can be found in baby bottles, water and soda bottles and food storage containers. It is also used in epoxy resins that coat the lining of metal food cans, including infant formula cans.  Unfortunately because BPA is an unstable polymer, heat, acidic conditions and many other everyday conditions can cause it to leach out of the plastic or can lining into food and ultimately people.

More than 200 studies have linked BPA exposures at very low levels to breast and prostate cancer, cardiac disease, obesity, diabetes, altered development of the brain and immune systems, lowered sperm counts and early puberty.  In fact BPA is so toxic that parts per billion or even parts per trillion have been shown to cross the placenta and disrupt normal prenatal development.

Because of the increasing body of scientific evidence linking BPA to adverse health effects, more and more governments are taking action to restrict its use.  Canada declared BPA to be a toxic substance and announced in April 2008 that it would ban BPA in baby bottles and restrict its use in infant formula cans.  Denmark banned BPA from all infant feeding and food packaging.  In addition, legislation to regulate BPA-containing products has been introduced in 31 states and localities.  In May 2009, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to ban BPA from children’s products.  Connecticut enacted legislation to ban BPA from infant formula and baby food containers in addition to baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable food and beverage containers in July 2009. Recently Maryland and Wisconsin banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups and Washington went one step further by also banning BPA from sports bottles.  All of these bills were adopted with broad‐based bipartisan support.  In addition, three counties in New York and the City of Chicago have restricted the use of BPA in children’s products.

Retailers and manufacturers are also responding to growing concern with BPA.   Leading manufacturers of baby bottles and sport water bottles have stopped using it, including Nalgene, Camelbak and at least nine leading baby bottle makers; and major U.S. retailers have stopped stocking baby bottles made with BPA including CVS, Kmart, Kroger, Safeway, Sears, Toys R Us and Wal‐Mart.

State action and voluntary market restrictions are not enough, however. Congressional action is needed to ensure all food and beverage containers are free of BPA to protect everyone, particularly children, from this toxic chemical.

I urge you co-sponsor S.593 - t he Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2009 - and support amending it to the Senate Food Safety Modernization Act.

Sincerely,