House votes to ban BPA in baby bottles

Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson is speaking right now on her bill, which would ban BPA in baby bottles. She said the House passed a similar bill last year, but it didn’t clear the Senate. Since then, two states have passed similar bills.

“The FDA has reversed itself on this hazardous substance. It has said that BPA, it believes, is quite dangerous,” she said. BPA is used in plastics, including the liners of canned foods. “The Institute for Health has connected BPA with things such as cancer, diabetes, obesity. It also has said that it’s an endocrine disruptor,” she said, meaning it disrupts normal sexual development in babies and children by mimicking hormones.

“I stood up here before you last year and talked about my granddaughter. I was a very new grandmom,” she said. She said she doesn’t think her granddaughter has had products containing BPA, but then again, it’s hard to tell. She said she thinks all children deserve protection from harmful chemicals.

Rep. Matt Shea said the Republican caucus supports the bill.

The bill passed 95 to 1. Here’s the bill.

Tags: BPA