A state panel will not require warning labels on metal cans, plastic bottles and other products that contain bisphenol A, despite more than 200 studies that have linked the chemical to cancer and reproductive problems.
Wednesday's unanimous decision may speak to the limitations of the state Environmental Protection Agency's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee. Dorothy Burk, chairwoman of the committee, acknowledged its reach is limited.
"By law we can only look at prenatal exposure, so that's why we struggle so long," she said. "We may be thinking there is something here but we just don't have enough evidence to say it clearly causes this."
Critics note the panel also failed to identify secondhand smoke as a reproductive toxin until 2006, and has voted to warn the public against only one chemical in the last three years.
"This isn't exactly a committee that's on the cutting edge of public health decisions in California," said Gretchen Lee Salter, policy manager at the Breast Cancer Fund.
The seven-member panel of scientists and physicians provide one venue through which products are required to display a warning label as part of Proposition 65.
Read full at The Los Angeles Times