Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has signed the nation's first BPA ban into law. The law bans BPA from empty children's containers like sippy cups and bottles, and will go into effect in 90 days. The infants of Long Island just got a little safer.
Post a comment
Comments:
"The infants have Long Island just got a little safer."
I think you meant of there. Not trying to be a jerk, just trying to help.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: While I agree that they will probably just jump to another unknown and cheap chemical it doesn't mean they shouldn't go after this one if it's harmful.
And allow me to get it out of the way: Won't somebody please think of the children. There now no one else has to do it.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Or they ban a substance, only to find out years later the studies were flawed and the stuff is harmless - see cyclamates...
@Fresh-Fest-1986: Oh I agree that going after bad chemicals is good, but maybe they should address the problem of cheap chemicals to begin with?
What I personally think is funny is that my mom was always complaining "You had a plain old glass bottle - no designs no fun stuff" and because of that I didn't turn out to be an overhormoned-deformed-person due to odd chemicals leeching into my body. Hooray!
@pb5000: That's just the six largest companies, and it was voluntary. The seventh largest, Bob's BPA Baby Bottles, had made no such commitment.
The law sounds very vague. All they have to say is 'sorry, these sippy cups are for uses 5 and older'.
@MitchEvious: Thanks, fixed. And since one good turn deserves another, I'll point out that it should be MitchIevous...
Well, I notice the term "empty" containers. Once again the pockets of our politicians are stuffed by the hands of Big JuicyJuice and Big Capri-Sun! ;)
next up: vinyl floors cause autism
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Well, when little SteveDave gets born, he's getting glass bottles with a layer of think plastic shrink wrapped around, so if it does get dropped and falls, the outside plastic will contain any "shards". I got the idea from light bulbs.
Good luck enforcing the law.
Yes, BPA should be banned, but this is an issue for the Fed's and/or State.
Local gov can not issue laws for the State agencies to enforce.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: This is why I'm so torn on socialism. On the one hand, I feel like companies simply can NOT be relied upon to police themselves and they will screw as many people as necessary to make cash as fast as possible. On the other hand, if all the companies in the country have the term "of the United States of America" tacked on the end of their names its going to be a pretty darn boring world we live in
@Radi0logy: Yeah.. you've read Animal Farm, right? Unfortunately, it normally only works in theory :(
@Alex Chasick: But they would have to change the name! They'd lose all that brand recognition they have going on!
@CargoHoldNap_GitEmSteveDave: JuicyJuice always tasted waay too strong to me, and Capri Sun.. was good but its just sugar water. And I could never get the straws in right! I can only imagine their cost cutting measures have made that task even more difficult.
My understanding is that there have been no studies linking BPA at the levels present in consumed materials to any ill effects. Did someone do a study I missed?
@CargoHoldNap_GitEmSteveDave: When little Flippy McGee gets born, he's getting a BOOB.
Though we'll have a couple BPA-free emergency-back-up bottles.
The whole thing is just so freaking complicated. Breastfeeding involves 8 zillion accessories, bottle-feeding involves 8 zillion accessories, and everything wants to kill the baby. How did it get so hard?
Yes, that's what I understood - the FDA has completely approved it, and there's nothing more than bandwagon hysteria against it. And the new plastics they're replacing it with have not been tested as thoroughly as BPA has, so the infants of Long Island actually just got a little LESS safe.
@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):
FLIPPY????
That made me LOL.
We were just talking today at lunch at work about how kids today can't have anything because it's "daaaaaannnngerouus" and how we skated without helmets on clip-on metal skates, played in the street, played in the dirt, kissed the dog, etc. etc. And we're all STILL ALIVE!
But poisonous bottles? A big NO.
@HogwartsAlum: Every time he's on the ultrasound, he's trying madly to swim to freedom or something. And of course at first, back when he looked like a cocktail shrimp, he didn't have arms, just little fins. They flipped! We were like, "Where you think you're goin' there, chief?"
The danger, of course, is that now that he's been Flippy for 8 months, when he gets a PROPER name when he gets born, everyone will continue to call him Flippy. For the rest of his life. Oh, well, I suppose it's good to start psychologically scarring your children early. :D
@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):
ROTFLMAO!!!!
That is really funny.
You better post a pic when he is born.
Maybe he'll be the next Michael Phelps. Without the bong, of course.
Kleen Kanteen baby!
[www.kleankanteen.com]
Steel is always real. Steel bottle, steel lunch containers, steel cookware.
[lunchbots.com]
I am seldom proud to be a NYer, but the passing of this bill is making me puff out my chest with pride...
haha yeah, but for some reason people always pronounced it "Mitchy evous" when I spelled it that way.
Yay now they'll just find some other weird chemical (probably worse) to put into our plastics.
I heard a piece on NPR yesterday about PVC plastic softeners, and how, when confronted the companies voluntarily removed the chemical in question, only to use another one which was again investigated 10 years later as being just as dangerous.