OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington State House has overwhelmingly passed the Safe Baby Bottle Act, which will eliminate the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from baby bottles, sippy cups, and other children's dishware, as well as from sports bottles.
The vote was 96-1.
The Senate is likely to concur and Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign the bill.
The bill was one of the top priorities of the Environmental Priorities Coalition and was supported by a coalition of doctors, nurses, consumer advocates, children's advocates, and environmentalists.
With passage of the bill, Washington becomes only the second state to ban BPA in sports bottles, and the fifth state to ban the chemical in baby bottles and other children's food and beverage containers. Maryland and Wisconsin passed bans earlier this year and Minnesota and Connecticut passed bans in 2009. Several other states, including California, Vermont, New York, and Illinois have similar bans pending.
"This is a huge victory for children's health and for parents. Dangerous chemicals like BPA have no place in baby bottles, sippy cups or any product children put in their mouths," said State Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), the prime sponsor of the house version of the legislation. "Parents can soon go to the store with confidence and buy a bottle for their baby that won't contain BPA."
"The Legislature gets a gold medal for protecting children's health," said Ivy Sager Rosenthal, campaign director for the Washington Toxics Coalition. "BPA is a bad actor chemical, and Washington has done the right thing in getting it out of products that expose kids and pregnant women. The bill sends a strong message to companies that they should stop using BPA in all of their products."
The Safe Baby Bottle Act eliminates BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups, and other food and beverage containers intended for children 3 years of age and under beginning July 2011. It also bans BPA in sports bottles beginning July 2012.
Major baby bottle manufacturers, including Avent, and Playtex, have started phasing out the use of BPA in their products. Nalgene and Camelbak, makers of sports water bottles, have already made the switch to BPA-free materials.
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