The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) just released a comprehensive re-evaluation of the chemical bisphenol A (commonly called BPA), finding that it poses no risk to consumers of any age group, including unborn children, infants and adolescents at current exposure levels. The agency also stated that exposure to BPA from food and a range of other potential sources (dust, cosmetics and thermal paper) “is considerably under the safe level." Read the EFSA’s useful fact sheet on BPA safety here.

So, for all you moms out there, that means that all those sippy cups containing trace levels of BPA that you threw away a few years ago…welp, you didn’t need to throw them away after all. Too bad the money you spent on replacement products wasn’t put away in little Timmy’s or Susie’s college account.

There also seems to be a change in the media coverage on this issue. NBC news ran this very positive story and Good Morning American has a reasoned, fact-based story on the subject as well (video here).

This is good news for worried moms who are constantly fed misinformation by activist organizations who want to see more regulations on manufacturers, retailers and the chemical industry and want to control the choices you make for you and your family. 

Moms should also know that it isn’t just the EFSA that finds BPA safe. The FDA, the EPA as well as scientific bodies in Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the European Union and the World Health Organization have all found BPA to be safe as commonly used. We can all pretend this is one big plot to poison the world, but I choose to believe the science and not give in to the tin hat, grassy knoll, black helicopter conspiracists.

If you’d like more information on the safety of BPA, see IWF Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini’s excellent new Policy Focus on the science of the "endocrine disrupter” debate.