Plastic baby bottles still on sale
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Plastic baby feeding bottles containing bisphenol A (BPA), which are banned in Europe, are still on sale in China because of a lack of regulations covering the chemical compound.
A European Union ban on the use of BPA in plastic baby bottles came into effect yesterday and prohibits the import of feeding bottles containing the chemical to its member countries from June 1.
BPA, which is widely used in polycarbonate (PC) bottles, can be released into food and drinks when the bottle is heated. This can disturb human metabolism, affect babies' immune systems and even induce cancer.
BPA can also mimic the female hormone estrogen and could lead to early puberty in infants.
PC baby bottles of domestic and foreign brands are commonly available in China's supermarkets, including Wal-Mart and Carrefour. The labels on the packs of PC bottles read "high temperature-resistant," "can be sterilized with steam," or "passed BPA tests."
Such bottles are popular as they are cheaper than the glass variety, said a sales assistant at one Beijing supermarket.
"The PC bottles all passed tests and as long as you use the bottle according to its instruction, they are safe," the assistant told the Beijing News.
Shanghai and Beijing's supermarkets and chain stores haven't received any official notices regarding safety concerns with plastic bottles.
So far there have been no reports of babies sickened from using PC bottles.
In Shanghai, neither quality authorities nor industrial and commercial authorities would comment on the situation.
The Plastic Trade Association of Shanghai said that before the country modifies the current standard, it was hard to order the removal of such bottles from shelves or stop them being produced.
"If the government needs, we'll cooperate with them on research," said Xu Xingyang, secretary general of the association.
Professor Wang Jikui, an expert on plastic with East China University of Science and Technology, said that usually the country's standards improved as people's quality of life improved.
"When people's life quality improves, naturally they'll pursue better products," Wang said. "And then low-toxic products will be replaced by non-toxic ones.
"Meanwhile, completing the entire material replacement will be a long process, so PC bottles may still flood the Chinese market for a while."
Current regulations require that BPA in food containers and packing materials should be less than 0.05 milligrams in 1 liter of distilled water, said Dong Jinshi, secretary general of the International Food Packaging Association.
Temperatures should not exceed 100 degrees Celsius when PC bottles are sterilized and people should buy new ones every several months as more BPA could be released after repeated sterilization, Dong said.
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