Wal-Mart to stop selling plastic bottles made with controversial material
Saturday, April 19th, 2008 by admin
Posted Apr 18th 2008 12:20PM by Brian White
Filed under: Products and services, Wal-Mart (WMT)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is purging bottles made from the controversial material bisphenol A (BPA) from its shelves starting in 2009, according to company officials. Well, baby bottles, that is. But there’s more: baby bottles, sippy cups, food containers, water bottles and pacifiers containing BPA are immediately being pulled from Wal-Mart’s Canadian stores.
Although Wal-Mart has sold non-BPA baby bottles for years alongside BPA-containing bottles, this is the first move the retailer has made to strike BPA from its shelves in its entirety. This comes after a report from the U.S. National Toxicology Program that indicated BPA could cause behavioral changes in infants and children. In addition, BPA was indicated as possibly causing the onset of early puberty in females.
So, why isn’t Wal-Mart jettisoning BPA from its U.S. stores now? Probably to give time to its vendors to change their packaging material over the course of the remainder of 2008. Of course, the American Chemistry Council trade group is lashing back by stating that recent reports are “unnecessarily confusing and frightening the public.” Regardless, other retailers are seeing huge increases in customer demand for non-BPA children’s products like glass alternatives and others. Even though the FDA seems to think BPA is safe, the American consumer needs more expediency than a federal review can provide, yes?
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