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Exciting news!
Condé Nast Portfolio is currently featuring a profile Q&A on BornFree president, Ron Vigdor. The piece focuses on why Ron and his business partners decided to found BornFree. Ron was also able to talk about the future of BornFree, and how the company plans on expanding to adult BPA-free products.
You can read the article here: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/heavy-doses/2010/08/02/baby-bottle-maker-bornfree-grows-on-fears-over-bpa-chemical
As staunch supporters of the anti-BPA campaign we were very pleased to see coverage in the British media last Friday of a new report linking BPA to breast cancer.
The Daily Mail and the BBC both featured articles about Professor Anna Soto, an expert in cancer development ar the University of Ulster, who has recently carried out research on BPA .
She is warning that BPA can trigger toxins which lead to cancer after discovering that foetal and neonatal exposure to the chemical increases the likelihood of development of malignant tumours later in life.
Professor Soto said:
I would call for a banning of the use of BPA giving the growing evidence and increasing concerns that research has shown.
The foetal and neonatal life are crucial for a child’s development and parents should consider the advantage of using BPA-free products.
The chemical has been banned or its use limited in Canada, France and Denmark and many US states. We are hoping that the UK government will sit up and take notice of the experts and take similar action against the use of BPA.
You can read the BBC article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10346961.stm
You can read the Daily Mail article here:
BornFree President Ron Vigor and BornFree are currently being featured on Lil Sugar, the popular US parenting website. In the article The Dad Behind the Bottle: Ron Vigdor of BornFree Interview Ron does an amazing job of explaining why he was motivated to start the company and what is in store for the future as BornFree becomes a lifestyle brand.
You can read the article here:
Last week’s New Yorker featured an interesting article called The Plastic Panic: How worried should we be about everyday chemicals. Journalist Jerome Groopman, also a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, wonders if BPA “may be among the world’s most vilified chemicals” and explores why governmental regulators are still undecided about whether to ban it. Groopman put the question to John Vandenbergh, a member of the expert panel for the National Toxicology Program:
one of the problems is that we would have to take half of the kids in the kindergarten and give them BPA and the other half not. Or expose half of the pregnant women to BPA in the doctor’s office and the other half not. And then we have to wait thirty to fifty years to see what effects this has on their development, and whether they get more prostate cancer or breast cancer. You have to wait at least until puberty to see if there is an effect on sexual maturation. Ethically, you are not going to go and feed people something if you think it harmful, and, second, you have this incredible time span to deal with.
Groopman goes on to explore why toxicity studies are difficult and can lead to uncertainty, and, following on from the recent US President’s Cancer Panel Report*, concludes that taking the precautionary route is the right way forward.
There’s no guarantee that we’ll always be right, but protecting those at the greatest risk shouldn’t be deferred.
Read the whole article here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/31/100531fa_fact_groopman#ixzz0pcbqXU35
*The President’s Cancer Panel Report singled out BPA as the example for chemicals that should be more tightly regulated, even as research continues into just how harmful they are.
We are delighted to see that the BPA issue has finally made front page news in the British press today!
The Independent has featured an article by Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Martin Hickman, which names and shames some of the biggest UK retailers and baby bottle producers who continue to supply products containing the harmful toxin BPA.
The article includes this statement made by a BornFree spokesperson:
We believe that BPA has been one of the most studied chemicals for decades for a reason. Recent scientific research suggests that small amounts of BPA may leach into foods or beverages stored in polycarbonate containers, especially when the contents are acidic, high in fat, or heated. Research also suggests that BPA may act as an endocrine disruptor, a substance which mimics natural human hormones, and that babies and growing children are particularly at risk from exposure because they are still undergoing many hormone-mediated developmental processes.
We believe that the use of BPA in baby-feeding products should be banned in its entirety. It is for this reason that our entire product portfolio has always been and always will be free from harmful chemicals such as BPA.
It really is time that this issue was brought to the UK public; the article tells us how we are lagging behind when it comes to taking government action
Canada and three US states, Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin, have banned BPA in baby bottles and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is concerned about its impact on babies and young children, and supports its removal from infant-feeding products.
We are looking forward to seeing more coverage of Bisephenol-A in tomorrow’s Independent.
You can read the full article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/investigation-scandal-of-danger-chemical-in-baby-bottles-1931628.html
Update: Thursday 1st April
The Independent has followed up with more on BPA today. This time the main feature is about how a worrying amount of our favourite family food is contained in tin cans lined with BPA.
We are also relieved to see that included in the piece is a link to this article http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/boots-vows-to-phase-out-baby-bottles-containing-chemical-1932741.html
Good news!
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