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The Food and Drug Administration is under a deadline to decide whether or not to ban the synthetic estrogen and additive to plastic, Bisphenol-A, better known as BPA, from all food containers. Four years ago the Natural Resources Defense Council petitioned the FDA to ban the chemical from food containers, but instead of responding within 180 days with a decision as required, the FDA did nothing. The NRDC sued the FDA and a court has now ordered the federal administration to issue a yes or no decision by this Saturday, March 31st. BPA is an industrial chemical found in plastics used in everything from children’s sippy cups to trash bags to the lining of aluminum cans. Studies have shown that the chemical may be linked to many diseases and disorders, including the onset of early puberty and infertility, but there is no smoking gun study showing a direct cause and effect link between low-dose chemical exposure and health disorders. Industry groups representing the myriad manufacturers that use BPA have lobbied the FDA against stronger regulation, citing a lack of evidence proving harm. In fact many chemicals that are shown to be dangerous to humans at high dose levels are cleared for consumption in low doses because immediate deleterious effects are hard to prove. To fill this information gap a group of scientists has just reviewed 800 scientific studies on hormone disrupting chemicals and found that the body of research actually shows a strong link between exposure to low doses of hormone disruptors and health problems in humans.

GUEST: Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and other books. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Salon, The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Grist, and other publications.

Click here to read the full article by Elizabeth Grossman about the scientific survey.