"FDA Relied Heavily on BPA Lobby"

"As federal regulators hold fast to their claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, e-mails obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that they relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A's risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage.

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's deputy director sought information from the BPA industry's chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

'I'd like to get information together that our chemists could look at to determine if there are problems with that data in advance of possibly reviewing the study,' Mitchell Cheeseman, deputy director of the FDA's center for food safety and applied nutrition, said in an e-mail seeking advice from Steven Hentges, executive director of the trade association's BPA group.

The FDA relied on two studies -- both paid for by chemical makers -- to form the framework of its draft review declaring BPA to be safe. The Journal Sentinel reported last year that the trade group wrote entire sections of that draft."

Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel May. 16, 2009.

See Also:

"Use of Plastic Bottles Increases BPA in Study" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)