Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Ariz.), October 31, 2007

PARENTS WORRIED ABOUT TOXICS GET PICKY ABOUT KID PRODUCTS

[Rachel's introduction: Whole Foods' Michaels said many parents naturally follow the "precautionary principle," erring on the side of caution to protect their children.]

By Elizabeth Weise and Liz Szabo, USA Today

Consider the BornFree baby bottle. It's made from a plastic that is five times as expensive as the one used for regular baby bottles. And its retail price, $9.50, is about triple that of a conventional bottle.

It also is flying off shelves in stores catering to parents who want the safest possible environment for their babies, stores where items labeled "bisphenol A-free" and "phthalate-free" line up next to the cloth diapers and breast pumps.

To anyone not contemplating parenthood, phthalates and bisphenol A sound like something kids bring home on chemistry quizzes, not cuddle in their cribs. But these chemicals are actually at the heart of worldwide scientific investigation and a debate over whether they are harmful to the very young.

Parents, activists and not a few scientists are concerned that if a baby drinks from a bottle made with bisphenol A or gums a toy made with phthalates, he or she could suffer serious and even permanent harm, including genital malformations.

These substances are sometimes called "everywhere chemicals" because they're so widely used. Bisphenol A, used to make plastics strong and shatter-resistant, shows up in water bottles, food containers, baby bottles, some dental fillings and the coatings for the inside of cans containing foods.

Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates), which make plastic soft and flexible, are used in toys, rattles, teethers, car interiors and medical devices such as tubing, catheters and intravenous bags.

Nearly every American has been exposed. A 2000 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found phthalates in the urine of 75 percent of the people tested. CDC research has shown that 95 percent of Americans have detectable levels of bisphenol A in their bodies.

The American Medical Association last month urged the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of all medical products containing one phthalate to protect newborns in hospitals. More than a hundred hospitals have begun removing such products from their neonatal nurseries.

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the National Academies of Science to produce a report on phthalates, a process that could take several years. The National Academies data would help the EPA set a "reference dose" for those chemicals, the maximum amount scientists think a person could be exposed to in food and water every day without suffering harm.

The agency also is doing research on the health effects of bisphenol A and has begun a risk assessment, likely a multiyear process.

Although the government hasn't made up its mind, more and more parents have.

Take Marina Borrone of Menlo Park, Calif. For Borrone, a clean house is about more than sparkling countertops. She aims to protect her home from chemicals she fears could harm her family or the planet. The restaurant owner and mom shuns most plastic in favor of old-fashioned glass baby bottles and wooden toys.

Her home state is catching up with her. This month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the country's first ban on the use of phthalates in toys and other kids' products. Under the law, any product made for young children that contains more than one-tenth of 1 percent of phthalates cannot be sold or distributed in California beginning in 2009.

The chemical industry disagrees with this approach.

"We know that exposure to phthalates is very low, well within what the EPA sets as their safety limits," said Marian Stanley, an American Chemistry Council spokeswoman. "We believe that for the amount in which they're used and the amounts that people are exposed to, there is not a problem."

Jeremiah McElwee, who oversees health and beauty products at Whole Foods Market Inc., said her company stopped selling baby bottles made of polycarbonate plastic in January 2006 over concerns about a form of bisphenol A used in the plastic.

"The research doesn't say these compounds are bad," said Joe Dickson, Whole Foods' quality-standards coordinator. "It says these products have a lot of question marks around them."

The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association says in a series of fact sheets on the safety of bisphenol A that plastic containing the chemical "has been rigorously studied and tested by both industry and government for decades."

Whole Foods' Michaels said many parents naturally follow the "precautionary principle," erring on the side of caution to protect their children.

Evenflo has marketed a glass baby bottle since the era when all baby bottles were glass, but its plastic bottles contain the chemical. Gerber sells several bisphenol A-free bottles, including its Clear View, Fashion Tints and Gentle Flow lines. Playtex' Nurser System disposable liners also do not contain the chemical.

Small companies focusing on baby bottles without bisphenol A are doing a brisk business. BornFree went on sale last year, and the Adiri Natural Nurser made its debut this summer.

Adiri can "barely keep up with demand" and ran out of its smallest bottles within a week of their August launch, said Sarah Eisner, vice president of sales and marketing.

The chemical industry has responded quickly to the threat to its market share. The American Chemistry Council, through a complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau, forced BornFree to change its marketing this year. The company used to pitch its bottles as a safer alternative but was ordered in February not to claim its products are more child- or eco-friendly.

In December, the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that one form of phthalate, called di(2-ethylhexyl) or DEHP, used in intravenous tubing, catheters and other flexible plastic medical equipment, could pose a risk to baby boys' reproductive tracts.

Copyright 2007, azcentral.com