The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reportedly agreed to take a further look at its 2008 decision that bisphenol A in certain food and drink containers doesn’t pose a significant safety threat. Newly appointed FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is reported to have put the agency’s acting chief scientist in charge of the review, which could take 3-6 months. In her first appearance before Congress as commissioner, Hamburg told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health that the FDA is re-examining its position on BPA.

Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter to the FDA earlier this month asking the agency to revisit its earlier conclusion. The Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations have been investigating the possible risks of the chemical BPA in consumer products and food product containers, particularly in infant formula containers and other items used by infants and children. The Congressmen pointed to the October, 2008, report of FDA’s advisory Science Board Subcommittee, which raised questions about some data aspects of the agency’s conclusion. “Based on this information, we request that FDA reconsider the Bush Administration’s position that BPA is safe at current estimated exposure levels,” said the letter.

In addition to their letter to the FDA, the legislators sent a request to the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, an industry group, creating a straw man about alleged tactics the industry might contemplate using in a future hypothetical public relations strategy to counter efforts to ban BPA. The duo requested a list of all attendees at group meetings, including their affiliations and contact information, certainly a chilling attack on the trade group member’s right to free speech and freedom of association.

As reported here at MassTortDefense, FDA had already decided to support additional research with regard to its analysis of BPA safety in plastic baby bottles and food and drink containers. The FDA’s basic position remains that current human exposure to BPA in food-packaging materials provides an adequate margin of safety. FDA has been re-evaluating available data and planning for the acquisition of additional data that will strengthen the exposure estimates from all dietary sources of BPA, with particular attention to dietary sources relevant to infants and children.

Makers of BPA say that the chemical poses no known risk to human health at current exposure levels. In response to public demand, some manufacturers have begun introducing products for infants and children that are BPA-free. The Environmental Protection Agency has calculated that adults and infants can consume 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight every day over a lifetime with little appreciable risk of harm.  But Democrats have introduced bills in Congress to ban the chemical.