Europe to ban BPA in baby bottles

BRUSSELS, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Europe will ban baby bottles containing bisphenol-A as a result of concerns it can affect development and immune response in children, authorities say.

The chemical, widely used to make plastic food and drink containers, has already been banned in Canada, France, Denmark and several U.S. states, EUobserver reported Friday.

Experts from European Union member states approved a measure banning the manufacture of feeding bottles containing the compound to go into effect in March 2011.

"The decision taken today is good news for European parents who can be sure that, as of mid-2011, plastic infant feeding bottles will not include BPA," EU health and consumer affairs commissioner John Dalli said.

In Britain, the National Childbirth Trust has been urging a similar ban.

"When you put liquids into a bottle -- particularly hot liquids or liquids containing fatty liquids -- it leaches out of the plastic," chief executive Belinda Phipps told the BBC.

"It's a chemical that mimics estrogens, but not in a good way," she said. "It interferes with estrogens getting into the receptors, and it can have some very unpleasant effects -- and animal studies have shown significant effects."