Keep your child safe from plastic food containers

By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lanka needs a gradual ban on plastic food containers widely used by children and instead alternative containers because testing facilities to detect harmful chemicals in them are sparse, says Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Executive Director Dilena Pathragoda.

The CEJ director told The Island yesterday that the Court of Justice of the European Union had confirmed that Bisphenol A (BPA) must be listed as a `substance of very high concern’. He warned that further delay in decision-taking here in that regard increased threats to children’s health.

The CEJ revealed the presence of Bisphenol A in baby feeding bottles, juice feeders and feeding cups last February (2022).

The research team had been sharing study findings and recommendations with relevant stakeholders throughout the past few months but, the decision-makers do not seem to understand the depth of the issue, said CEJ Planning and Management officer Chalani Rubesinghe

In December 2021, the court of Justice of the European Union confirmed that BPA must be listed as a “substance of very high concern” considering its hormone-disrupting properties, while rejecting the attempt of Plastics Europe to reverse the decision of European Chemical Agency (ECHA) to identify BPA as an Endocrine Disruptive Chemical.

The European Food Safety Authority has now established a new permissibility total daily intake of 0.04 nanograms per kilogramme of body weight per day, drastically reducing its previous standard (4 micrograms per kilogramme of body weight per day) by 100,000 folds. [source: Morrison, O., EFSA poised to slash daily exposure limits for bisphenol A as EU court confirms it as ‘substance of very high concern’].

In the European Union, BPA is classified as a reproduction toxic, a substance that causes eye damage, respiratory irritation, skin allergies, and a potential hazard to the aquatic environment.

“Another important fact we identified in our study was despite having legal provisions and standards, plastic feeding bottles and cups can contain these chemicals. For example, in Malaysia use of BPAin polycarbonate baby bottles is prohibited. But our study found that one baby feeding bottle (“Minitree regular neck feeding bottle”), made in China and purchased in Malaysia, contained 2.6 µg/kg of BPA and it also had a “BPA-free” label,” Chalani said

Pathragoda said that their study had also found that two baby feeding bottles sold in Bhutan but made in India, where the use of BPA in baby feeding bottles is prohibited, had BPA levels of 0.6 and 3.2 µg/kg proving its non-compliance with Indian legislation. There was also a sample purchased from Bhutan, manufactured in Italy that contained BPA, 0.7 µg/kg. This indicates that having laws is not sufficient to stop manufacturers from using these chemicals and thereby will not ensure the chemical safety intended by the law.

“We believe that to ensure the safety of children, Sri Lanka must go for plastic-free alternative child food containers. The local market already has glass feeding bottles as an alternative and now there is a silicon cover for glass bottles that serves as a protective cover,” he added.

In the international markets, stainless-steel and silicon bottles are available as alternatives. In Sri Lanka, the feeding bottle importation license is issued by the NMRA (National Medicines Regulatory Authority). Therefore, the authority has the ability to prevent the importation of plastic feeding bottles and replace them with alternatives. But the authority doesn’t seem to be sensitive to this issue.

CEJ as an organization that cares for children’s health and the environment, proposes a complete ban on the importation and sale of feeding bottles made of polycarbonate materials, with a grace period given until a sufficient supply of glass, silicon or stainless-steel feeding bottles reaches the market, to prevent any unbearable price inflations applied to feeding bottles that may result in negative feedback leading to reverse the ban.

The CEJ director observed that in this matter, the Sri Lanka Standard Institution (SLSI) puts its best effort to bring the necessary standards. But it is questionable to what extent the standards on plastic can prevent Bisphenol A from seeping into the country through importation. It is a challenge for a country like Sri Lanka with fewer facilities to test chemicals like BPA and Phthalates.

The Sri Lanka Import/Export control heavily depends on the laboratories for testing and has no facility like an XRF scanner to facilitate immediate testing of harmful chemicals in imported items. Even then reluctance to take a brave decision like closing the entering gates for plastic feeding bottles (at least) is the misfortune of children in the country.