California bans BPA in baby bottles

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SACRAMENTO, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill banning the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, from baby bottles and toddlers' drinking cups, officials said.

The bill, the Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act, had passed the state Senate in August, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, and Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, D-Marina Del Ray, will ban BPA in baby bottles and drinking cups made or sold after July 1, 2013, and require manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative to BPA in those products, the newspaper said.

A number of similar legislative efforts had failed in recent years.

California's action follows the lead of a number of other states and nations in restricting BPA, which has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and sexual dysfunction in people and cancer in mice.