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Wednesday, August 20, 2008
FDA Decision on BPA Outrages Health Advocates
Comtex
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Aug 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Scientists, physicians, and children's health advocates expressed outrage with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) announcement that bisphenol A - the hormone disrupting chemical found in numerous consumer products including can linings and baby bottles - is "safe." In laboratory studies BPA is consistently linked to obesity, developmental problems, risk for heart attack, and breast and prostate cancer.
"The FDA's assessment relies on just two studies which were funded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). This ignores dozens of other studies done by independent scientists which have found evidence of health consequences," says Dr. Sarah Janssen, a physician and scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
"The chemical industry's efforts to hide or misrepresent the hazards of its product have been so blatant that Congress has felt the need to intervene," said Dr. Jennifer Sass, a scientist with NRDC. Congress is scrutinizing the communications between the ACC and a PR firm, the Weinberg Group, whose clients have included the alcohol and tobacco industries.
A Union of Concerned Scientists poll of FDA scientists indicated broad industry interference within the agency.
Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA): "Since the regulators are asleep at the wheel, I've introduced legislation to ban BPA in all food and beverage containers, and will continue to work to ensure that it is enacted into law."
"There is clear, credible evidence in the growing number of scientific studies that link bisphenol A to the very health effects we see on the rise today," says Christopher Gavigan, executive director of Healthy Child, Healthy World.
"The profits keep growing for Dow Chemical, and other petrochemical companies in the ACC," says Mia Davis with Workgroup for Safe Markets. "We're demanding public health be of greater importance than the wealth of these corporations."
"The federal government's failure to prevent harm for American citizens is unacceptable: When will government learn to err on the side of caution instead of risk equations?" said Lois Gibbs, founder/executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
Interview contacts:
Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH Natural Resources Defense Council. 415.875.6126 sjannssen@nrdc.org
Jennifer Sass, PhD, Natural Resource Defense Council 202.289.6868 jsass@nrdc.org
Anila Jacobs, MD, Environmental Working Group ... Alex Formuzis (202) 939-9140
Janet Nudelman, Director of Program and Policy for the Breast Cancer Fund ...Shannon Coughlin, 415.336.2246 scoughlin@breastcancerfund.org
Mia Davis Co-Coordinator, Workgroup for Safe Markets 617.338.8131 ext 201 miadavis@cleanwater.org
Kathleen A. Curtis, Policy Director, Clean New York, a project of Women's Voices for the Earth 518 669.8282; 518 355.6202 clean.kathy@gmail.com
Sarah Uhl, Coordinator of the Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut 860.232.6232; 860.882.9950 suhl@cleanwater.org
Jane Haley-Harris, Executive Director of the Oregon Center for Environmental Health; 503.233.1510; jane@oregon-health.org
Lindsay Dahl, Healthy Legacy Minnesota, 612.870.3458 www.healthylegacy.org, ldahl@iatp.org
Christopher Gavigan, CEO / Executive Director, Healthy Child Healthy World 310. 820. 2030 www.healthychild.org
Lois Gibbs, founder, Center for Health Environment and Justice ... Dianna S. Wentz 703.237.2249, ext. 19 dianna@chej.org
For more information: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/FDABPA
http://www.babystoxicbottle.org
SOURCE Center for Health Environment and Justice
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/FDABPA
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
FOX Translator
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No, it's not a dance craze. Contago is a condition of supply and demand, essentially a fancy word to say that prices for items, typically commodities, are cheaper now than they would be at some point down the line.
Anything that¿s sold in the futures market can be in a case of contango. Futures are exactly that: a contract to buy an item or asset at a price in the future. This is the case with oil, with traders buying and selling contracts to acquire a barrel of oil in months down the line. When a market is in contango, spot prices, or the price of a commodity if you were to buy it right now, are lower than forward prices.
Why is that important? Well, it usually tells you the supply of a given commodity is plentiful (since, according to Economics 101, a large supply usually leads to cheap prices).
Incidentally, if you think contango is a mouthful, its opposite condition is known by the equally tongue-tying term backwardation.
