Protecting citizens' health and Bisphenol A

26.1.2018

Question for written answer E-000446-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Guillaume Balas (S&D) , Eric Andrieu (S&D)

On 11 January 2018, MEPs from the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) voted in favour of a proposal for a regulation put forward by the Commission on the use of Bisphenol A. The proposal suggests lowering the Specific Migration Limit (SML) in food contact materials and prohibiting the use of Bisphenol A in materials that will come into contact with infant foods, which flies in the face of the latest scientific assessments of endocrine disruptors, which show that thresholds will not protect citizens’ health. Moreover, the European Chemicals Agency has listed Bisphenol A as a ‘substance of very high concern’.

The Commission’s proposal does not appear to take these factors into account. However, under Article 169 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Union must contribute to protecting the health of consumers.

1. Why did the Commission choose to set a threshold rather than prohibit Bisphenol A, thereby failing to apply the precautionary principle (Article 191 TFEU)?

2. Why has the Commission not taken measures to protect pregnant women when studies have shown that exposure to endocrine disruptors poses serious risks to foetal development?

3. When will the European Food Safety Authority’s study on the subject be published, and what measures will be taken in response to its findings?