WASHINGTON (February 23, 2022) – The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Polycarbonate/Bisphenol A North American Team issued the following statement in response to the draft scientific opinion entitled, “Re-evaluation of the risks to public health related to the presence of bisphenol A (BPA) in foodstuffs,” published by the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, and Processing Aids (CEP) on December 15, 2021.
“We have reviewed and submitted our comments on the Draft Opinion detailing EFSA’s methodology and analyses that led the EFSA CEP Panel to propose a reduction in the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of BPA from 4 micrograms/kg-bw/d to 0.00004 micrograms/kg-bw/d. The evidence considered by the CEP panel does not provide a robust basis to significantly deviate from the conclusions in the previous EFSA opinion from 2015 and we call for an examination of the full body of science as EFSA continues to review and refine its opinion.
“The EFSA CEP Panel relied on a limited timeframe of data to derive their most recent TDI, resulting in the exclusion of multiple high-quality, robust studies conducted under stringent guidelines, including Good Laboratory Practice regulations. To address whether evidence supports any health effects, a more rigorous evaluation is necessary based on the totality of the evidence. It should build on the previous, extensive review of the BPA literature, by including a thorough review of all available studies and incorporating considerations of study quality, adversity of effects, and relevance of effects to humans.
“BPA is one of the most widely studied chemicals used today. In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its findings from the CLARITY Core Study, the largest study ever conducted to study the full range of potential health effects from exposure to BPA. This study along with many others confirmed that BPA is safe at the very low levels to which consumers are exposed. EFSA should base its opinions on sound science, and we urge EFSA to carefully consider all of the science when finalizing its opinion.”