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Suffolk Close Up

By Karl Grossman

The following article by an accomplished environmental journalist appeared in the South Hampton Press, April documenting our recent efforts with BPA legislation in Suffolk County.

“In this day and age of prevention, we owe it to our youngsters to minimize their exposure to potentially harmful products, especially when there are safe, toxin-free alternatives available,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy last week in signing a firstin- the-nation law banning the sale of plastic baby bottles and cups for toddlers containing the BPA.

Mr. Levy’s was right on target: BPA, an acronym for Bisphenol-A, is a toxic agent, especially for youngsters, and there’s absolutely no need for it. Indeed, as evidence has mounted about the health impacts of BPA, companies including Gerber, Evenflow and Playtex Products have stopped selling baby bottles made with BPA. Major retailers including Walmarts and Babies R Us have switched to—and are emphasizing—“BPA-free” products.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer was at Mr. Levy’s side in Hauppauge Thursday for the signing of the county measure and announced that he is introducing a BPA-Free Kids Act—a federal counterpart of the Suffolk law. Already, Senator Schumer is a prime sponsor of broader proposed U.S. law—the Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2009—that would ban BPA in not only bottles and cups for young children but in all food and beverage containers.

A key figure at the signing ceremony was Karen Joy Miller, founder of Prevention Is The Cure, an initiative of the Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition which has grown to be a national phenomenon. It was Ms. Miller, a breast cancer survivor,
who with information about BPA went to Legislator Steven Stern of Dix Hills that spurred him to introduce the Suffolk County BPA law.

“This ban opens the door to policy-makers at the state and federal level,” commented Ms. Miller last week. She praised Suffolk County for being “so brave to open up the door to what I think will be more expansive legislation.”

As its website (www.preventionisthecure.org) explains: “Prevention Is The Cure is an anti-disease, environmental group that brings fresh perspective to the causes of disease rather than ways of coping once diagnosed. We are convinced that disease is
not caused by genes alone but by the interaction of environmental triggers and genetic predispositions.” Prevention Is The Cure is rooted in the landmark work of Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring that documented how chemical toxins—particularly pesticides—were causing an epidemic of cancer. But, notes its
website, in boldface type on top of its home page, “40 years have passed and the wake-up call put forth by Rachel Carson and other activists have been BLOCKED by powerful interests that profit from pollution.” Strong words, and true.

A scientist central in exposing BPA for being the source of illness and death, including cancer, is University of Missouri Professor of Biological Sciences Frederick vom Saal who in a recent interview said: “It’s not just what you eat, it’s what you eat out of.” BPA, he said, “poses a threat” and stands to “shorten lives.” Of the chemical industry, it’s “going to end up like the tobacco companies, sued into the Stone Age.”

BPA is widely used to harden plastics and also as a coating inside cans of beverages and food. Three million metric tons of the stuff are manufactured annually. With BPA production such a big business, the chemical industry totally denies—including at
hearings on the bill in Suffolk and in trying to block Congressional action—any harmful impacts.

Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the House sponsor of the Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2009, says “it is time for Congress to act quickly to ban this toxin from all food and beverage containers.” He cites research showing that one out of 10 cans tested contained enough BPA to “expose a child or pregnant woman to more than 200 times the government’s safe level.” The BPA issue is clearly one that goes beyond baby bottles and cups for toddlers. Mr. Markey also points to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that determined that measurable amounts of BPA are now in 93 percent of the U.S. population.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a co-sponsor with Mr. Schumer of the measure in the Senate, declares: “Americans should not be used as guinea pigs by chemical
companies.”

The Suffolk ban hopefully will, as Ms. Miller believes, “open the door” to more “expansive legislation”—laws to ban this terribly harmful and unnecessary chemical.