California Considers BPA For Toxics List

California regulators are considering adding the plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA) to Proposition 65—the state’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm—because of concerns that BPA is a reproductive toxicant. California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment announced on Feb. 11 that BPA appears to meet the criteria for listing under Prop 65 on the basis of evidence reported by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in 2008. The announcement comes several months after a committee of scientific experts unanimously voted not to list BPA under Prop 65. In response to that earlier decision, the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council filed a petition with California EPA asserting that the agency should list BPA under Prop 65 because of NTP’s conclusions that BPA causes developmental and reproductive toxicity.