California Proposes Listing BPA On Prop 65

California is proposing to list bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting chemical, as known to cause reproductive toxicity under a state law called Proposition 65. Consumer products sold in California that contain a chemical listed under Proposition 65 must carry a warning label. But many BPA-containing items sold in the state wouldn’t need the label. That’s because California is also proposing to exempt products that provide exposures of less than 290 µg of BPA per day, the maximum allowable dose set by the state. The proposed exemption could encourage businesses to lower the amount of BPA in their products, says the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). A state committee of scientific experts voted unanimously in 2009 not to add BPA to the Proposition 65 list. But on Jan. 25, OEHHA proposed adding BPA to the Proposition 65 list on the basis of a 2008 report by the National Toxicology Program that found that the chemical caused developmental toxicity in laboratory animals at high levels of exposure.