Prop 65: Update on Bisphenol A (BPA)

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OEHHA announced that the 2022 meeting of the Carcinogen Identification Committee (“CIC”) will be held virtually on December 14, 2022. Among other issues, the CIC will consider listing Bisphenol A (“BPA”) on the Proposition 65 list as a chemical known to the State of California as causing cancer. (BPA has been listed as a chemical causing reproductive toxicity since April of 2013.) BPA was placed in the ‘high’ priority group for future listing consideration by the CIC at their November 2020 meeting.

BPA is a high-production-volume chemical with a wide range of consumer and industrial applications. Most BPA is used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, though BPA is also used in the production of a variety of other materials. BPA can be considered ubiquitous, with levels measured in environmental media, biota, and humans. Humans are exposed to BPA predominantly through contaminated food and drinking water, with additional exposures from ingestion of dust, inhalation of indoor and outdoor air, and dermal contact with certain materials. Biomonitoring studies have shown that BPA is readily detected in Californians, though both detection frequency and levels have decreased in recent years as some uses of BPA have been reduced or prohibited.

At the December 14 meeting, the CIC declined to list BPA as a carcinogen under Proposition 65 by a vote of 5 (yes) to 6 (no). The CIC voted 10 — 0, with one abstention, to affirm the update to the Section 27000 list recommended in the staff report.