Companies Looking For Alternatives To Plastic Chemical

With the recent health concerns over bisphenol A, a chemical found in many plastic products, companies are searching for alternatives and catering to the growing market for products made without the chemical.

However, the plastics and food packaging industries defend the safety of bisphenol A or BPA, and say that for certain particular uses there are no alternatives that can do everything BPA can do.

Also, these companies are now cautioning chemicals that may be embraced now as safer alternatives to BPA eventually might turn out to pose their own set of health concerns.

A major study published on Tuesday linking BPA to heart disease and diabetes will put more pressure on regulators to crack down on the compound, according to some scientists and activists. They want BPA banned at a minimum in children’s products such as baby bottles.

For decades, BPA has been used in many products. It is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a transparent, durable and shatter-resistant material in products including water bottles, plastic utensils and medical devices.

But it can leach out of plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside a container and some retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target, are phasing out products made with BPA.

"Large retailers are moving away from BPA products. I think it’s going to force manufacturers to switch to BPA-free products only, in feeding (products) or in toys or whatever else you can think of that has BPA," said Ron Vigdor, president of Florida-based company BornFree.

BornFree has seen big increases in sales of its range of BPA-free products including plastic baby bottles and cups made of Polyamide PA, a form of nylon, Vigdor said.

Nalgene launched a line of water bottles made from a new type of plastic made by Eastman Chemical Company called Tritan copolyester, which is not made with BPA but boasts BPA’s good qualities such as transparency and shatter resistance. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc owns Nalgene.

Eastman Chemical is scaling up production capacity for Tritan, introduced last year, with new facilities to be ready by late 2009, Spokeswoman Tracy Broadwater said.

The big chemical companies and food package manufacturers are exploring alternatives to BPA, but believe banning the chemical would be unwise and unwarranted, industry officials said.

"An alternative would have to be found that, number one, works, that provides the necessary function. The second big hurdle is that the alternative should be at least as safe," said Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council industry group.

Hentges said BPA makers include Dow Chemical, Bayer, Sunoco Chemicals and Hexion Specialty Chemicals.

There is no alternative that works as well to prevent spoilage and extend shelf life for canned foods as the epoxy resins made with BPA used as lining in cans, according to John Rost, chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, representing the food and beverage packaging industry.

Over 25 years ago, these epoxy coatings became the "gold standard", replacing an earlier generation of materials. "With the use of epoxy coatings, shelf life of foods virtually doubled overnight," Rost said.