Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

the growing body of evidence that the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), used in plastics, including food packaging, is harmful to humans even in minute quantities and is unsuitable for use in babies’ products, such as baby bottles and food containers,

(ii)

that research has linked BPA to a range of health problems, including reproductive problems, endometriosis (a chronic gynaecological disease), heart disease, diabetes and abnormalities in liver enzymes, among other conditions,

(iii)

the recent letter by eight toxicologists and cancer specialists from the United States of America (US), Britain and Italy, published in The Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2010, that calls for the products containing BPA used for baby and children’s food and liquid packaging to be withdrawn and replaced by less hazardous substances,

(iv)

that children’s products containing BPA have been banned in Denmark, Canada and a number of states in the US,

(v)

that a number of manufacturers have voluntarily stopped using BPA in babies’ products, demonstrating that alternatives are available, and

(vi)

that Food Standards Australia New Zealand permits the continued use of this chemical in babies’ products in Australia; and

(b)

calls on the Rudd Government to reassess the public health risk of BPA to all Australian consumers.

Question agreed to.