Wal-Mart named in BPA class action

Several retailers including Wal-Mart have been named in a nationwide class action for their participation in selling polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and toddler training cups containing the controversial hormone BPA.

This whole BPA - or Bisphenol-A - controversy is not a good thing. BPA is a key compound used in polycarbonate plastics, which are clear and nearly shatter-proof (a good thing), and also possibly toxic and poisoning us and our children daily (apparently bad...very, very bad). These plastics are used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical devices, lenses, CDs, and household electronics...a fact that, in the interest of full disclosure, actually made me check the bottom of my water bottle this morning to make sure I wasn’t slowly killing myself.

The lawsuit in question was filed in Georgia, and you can read the (very long) complaint here, in which defendants are accused of manufacturing and selling materials made with BPA despite knowledge of likely adverse affects. In addition to Wal-Mart, retailers such as CVS, Target, and Kroger have been named in the suit. Also named were manufacturers of the bottles themselves, including Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex. The best part of this whole thing - not only have over a hundred studies been produced in the last decade warning of the adverse affects of BPA, but apparently in deeming the compound safe the FDA decided to rely on only two, both of which were produced by the American Plastics Council. So kudos to the FDA for that.

The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. You can read the release on it below.

Nationwide Consumer Class Action Lawsuit Filed in Georgia Against Baby Bottle Manufacturers [MarketWatch]

NEW YORK, NY, Sep 17, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX)—On September 12, 2008, Rights For America attorneys, Robert H. Weiss and Stephen David Murakami, of The Law Offices of Robert H. Weiss, PLLC in New York, along with Yehuda Smolar and William Cromwell, from the Weiss & Associates Atlanta, Georgia branch office, filed a consumer class action complaint on behalf of four Georgia families against the top four polycarbonate plastic baby bottle manufacturers for their use of the synthetic hormone known as Bisphenol-A (BPA) as a chemical component in their plastic baby bottles and toddler training cups.

Bisphenol-A, also referred to as “BPA” was developed in the 1930s as a synthetic estrogen, but instead gained wide usage beginning in the 1950s for its rigid and shatterproof qualities in scores of plastic products, including baby bottles and children’s training cups. Unfortunately, over 150 independent peer reviewed studies by the world’s leading scientists and researchers in this area have repeated shown that BPA can activate estrogen receptors that lead to the same effects as the body’s own estrogens. Exposure to BPA (even at very low doses) has been linked to prostate and breast cancer, diabetes, premature onset of puberty in females, lowered sperm count and infertile sperm in men, developmental toxicity, attention deficit disorders and neurological toxicity in laboratory animals.

BPA is also classified as an endocrine disruptor, which can interfere with or disrupt the finely orchestrated balance of hormones that are active during critical periods of the development and formation of the brain and sexual organs in the fetus, infants or young children who have been identified as being particularly vulnerable and therefore are at an even greater risk to the harmful effects of BPA.
The Georgia class action concerns the intentional and negligent failure by the baby bottle and training cup manufacturers, such as North Philips Electronics North America (Avent America, Inc. is subsidiary), Evenflo Company, Inc., Gerber Products Company, and Playtex Products, Inc., to disclose the fact that a dangerous synthetic hormone (BPA) is a component of the chemical formula which leaches from the plastic baby bottles and cups and migrates into the baby formula, food and liquid which the infants ingest and thereby exposes them to an increased risk of harm. Studies have also shown that heating these baby bottles in a microwave oven, or washing them in a dishwasher at high temperatures can accelerate the leaching process.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia pursuant to the State of Georgia Consumer Protection Laws on behalf of Georgia residents as well as parents throughout the United States who purchased polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, bottle liners and training cups. Several local retail stores were also named as defendants for their participation in selling polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and toddler training cups. These retail defendants include CVS Caremark Corporation, Target Corporation, The Kroger Co., Toys “R” Us, Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Thursday, September 18, 2008

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