After decades of claiming the widely used chemical bisphenol A (BPA) was safe to use n food packaging, companies that use the have begun to back away from the BPA. Now, after companies using bisphenol A (BPA) and a manufacturer took actions to reduce the use of BPA, for fear it is not safe, Congress has been moved to act.

Just one day after a gas and chemical company that distributed BPA, SUNOCO, informed investors it would no longer sell BPA for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3. Sunoco’s reason was uncertainty about the safety of the widely used compound.

This follows an announcement that six baby bottle manufacturers that they would stop using BPA to make baby bottles.

The action was taken by by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who introduced introduced legislation that would establish a federal ban on bisphenol A in all food and beverage containers.

While the action is the right thing to do for American consumes, it is very late in comeing. For decades scientific studies have linked BPA, used in the vast majority of food packaging, to w wide variety of serious health problems , including cancer, hyperactivity, diabetes, and reproductive disorders.

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