France leads crackdown on BPA in food packaging

[FarCenter]

Some 3.8 million tons of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) are manufactured each year worldwide, making it one of the most-produced chemicals on the market.

BPA is everywhere. It's used to make the inner lining of tin and soda cans, plastic bottles and packaging materials, contact lenses, consumer electronics, toys, sporting items, flooring, receipts and DVDs.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) lists nearly 60 different industries that potentially use the chemical.

Yet evidence over the past decade has increasingly linked BPA to detrimental health impacts on people and the broader environment.

Animal testing has shown that the chemical affects the body's hormonal balance. Bisphenol-A mirrors the sex hormone estrogen, and can interfere with the reproductive system.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15482199,00.html