New E.P.A. Scrutiny Is Set for a Chemical in Plastics

This goes along with the statewide ban on BPA that the governor recently signed into law. This is good news as it will help keep this one chemical, which has been widely found in the waters around here, out of circulation. – Editor

3/29 NY Times
New E.P.A. Scrutiny Is Set for a Chemical in Plastics
By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency  plans to add bisphenol-A <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/bisphenol_a/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier&gt; , or BPA, a plastic widely used in food packaging and plastic bottles, to its list of chemicals of concern because of potential adverse impacts on the environment and human and animal health.

The agency will require new studies of concentrations of the plastic in surface water, groundwater and drinking water to determine where it exists in levels requiring action. More than a million pounds of the chemical, used to harden plastics, are released into the environment each year, the agency said.

The environmental agency will also require manufacturers that use BPA to provide test data to help evaluate effects on growth, reproduction and development in aquatic organisms and wildlife.

More at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/science/earth/30epa.html

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