Our letter in support of banning BPA in baby bottles in Minnesota

Here's a copy of our letter in support of removing BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups in Minnesota, an action currently under consideration in the state legislature.

February 13, 2009

To: Deanna White
Healthy Legacy
308 E. Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Re: Minnesota Bisphenol-A Legislation

Dear Deanna White,

Thank you again for meeting with us this week. We appreciate Healthy Legacy's work on promoting safer alternatives for children's products. We have been intimately involved as a business in the same initiative for over 10 years and agree that much work remains to be done.

As we stated, we are very concerned about the effect of product safety regulations on small businesses. The survival of our business and the hundreds of small companies we buy from has been severely threatened by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which became federal law last August. We view it as an overly broad measure which unfairly hurts small manufacturers while forcing the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to focus on dozens of product types which represent little threat to health while ignoring high-risk products.

It is our goal to reform this law to make it more focused and effective and to preserve small businesses. To that end, we helped create the Handmade Toy Alliance and have been working closely with the CPSC and Senator Klobuchar's office to advocate for common-sense rules that will improve the CPSIA.

As for legislative initiatives in Minnesota, we would like to express our support for eliminating BPA from baby bottles, children's sippy cups, and infant formula cans. The dangers of BPA have been known for many years and several alternatives are now widely available. We feel there is no reason why BPA bottles and cups should remain in the marketplace. In fact, we have seen a dramatic increase in BPA-free cups and bottles at large retailers. Wal-Mart has even announced that they will be discontinuing BPA-based products.

Although we would prefer a federal ban instead of a myriad of state laws, we recognize the role that Minnesota can play in accelerating consideration of a federal ban by passing this law now. Keep in mind, though, that banning BPA in bottles and cups while continuing to allow it in canned goods and food storage containers only solves a small part of the overall problem.

We are not in favor of requiring third-party testing in order to prove compliance with a BPA ban. The state may conduct random audits to assure compliance, but mandatory third party testing will be disproportionately detrimental to small businesses, which is precisely the effect we've seen with the CPSIA.

Thank you again for soliciting our input on these important issues. We wish to stress again that we are very engaged with these issues, both as parents and business owners. Our goal has always been to provide safe and affordable alternatives to synthetic and disposable products. We look forward to working with you further to pursue these goals.

Sincerely,

Millie Adelsheim and Dan Marshall
Peapods Natural Toys & Baby Care