“BPA: The Scientists, The Scare, The 100-Million Dollar Surge,” by Trevor Butterworth.
Conspiracy, incompetence, a federal agency out of control. A recent Mother Jones story by Mariah Blake indicts the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a threat to science and public health over the way it’s conducting research into bisphenol A (BPA), the never-ending chemical scare story of the 21st century. Raise the alarm (again), stir the pot (again), marshal outrage (again). And, if you have no other sources of information, the arguments that the FDA is trying to undermine a major research initiative by the National Institutes of Health, dubbed CLARITY, by introducing contaminated study data to claim that BPA was safe might seem persuasive and damaging, if somewhat perplexing and perhaps unbalanced. Why does the FDA keep insisting that BPA is not a threat to health? Why does the Environmental Protection Agency concur? And Europe’s Food Safety Authority and the World Health Organization? The Manichean tapestry woven by Mother Jones seems like such a complete narrative—the arc of a despicable covenant between industry and regulators—until you see the loose threads; and pull. Read more.