The FDA has announced a forthcoming meeting of the Science Board to the Food and Drug Administration, on the topic of BPA. The Science Board provides advice primarily to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs and other appropriate officials on specific complex and
technical issues as well as emerging issues within the scientific community in industry and academia.  At the meeting, on October 31, 2008, the Science Board will hear about and discuss a review of the draft assessment of Bisphenol A for use in food contact applications by the Science Board BPA Subcommittee. The Board will also hear an overview of current methods for detection of contaminants in FDA-regulated products.

In early 2008, FDA formed an agency-wide BPA task force to facilitate cross-agency review of current research and new information on BPA for all FDA regulated products. Medical devices containing the chemical are now also on the FDA’s radar screen. See the note in FDA News.  BPA is used in dialysis tubing, blood oxygenators, and dental sealants. And now that an evaluation examining migration of BPA from food contact materials has been drafted, the agency is apparently planning to publish a document assessing the safety of BPA exposure from regulated devices, biologics and pharmaceuticals.

The FDA’s recent assessment was particularly focused on the concerns for developmental toxicity identified in recent assessments of BPA, including those of the National Toxicology Program and their expert panel, based on animal data. FDA concluded that this data was insufficient to merit a change in the exposure levels the agency currently allows for BPA. FDA concluded that an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses, for infants and adults. This assessment represents a full examination of data considered pivotal to the relevant exposure levels associated with food contact substances, the FDA said.