To the Editor:

Calling the statement by the Food and Drug Administration about the plastic additive bisphenol-A "a shift in position" from the Bush era is an overstatement.

In 2008, the F.D.A. ignored recommendations of its advisory board and several other government scientific bodies when it determined that BPA is safe. That decision, large portions of which were drafted by chemical industry lobbyists, relied on a couple of industry-financed studies. It contradicted hundreds of studies showing that at extremely low doses BPA causes numerous reproductive abnormalities and other health effects related to the endocrine system, like obesity and diabetes.

In the recent F.D.A. announcement, the agency has not determined that BPA is unsafe. Rather, it suggests that people limit their own exposure to BPA. Such guidance is reminiscent of the Bush administration and other anti-regulation advocates.

An agency whose mandate is to protect public health once again abdicates its responsibility, instead telling consumers that the burden of protection is theirs. By failing to take swift action to ban BPA, the F.D.A. erodes confidence that the administration is about change.

Miriam Gordon

California Director

Clean Water Action

San Francisco,

Jan. 16, 2010