PLASTIC baby bottles containing organic compound Bisphenol A (BPA) are on sale in supermarkets in Nanshan District despite a claim by the European Union (EU) that BPA could trigger sexual prematurity.
There was no official notice requiring supermarkets to remove polycarbonate (PC) bottles containing BPA from shelves, district supermarkets told Shekou News.
I have never heard ... that PC feeding bottles containing BPA could cause sexual prematurity. The PC baby bottles have been very popular, said a saleswoman at a large maternity and children s store on Baishi Road in Nanshan.
Imported plastic feeding bottles containing no BPA each costs more than 100 yuan (US$15) in our store, compared with PC bottles selling for between 20 and 30 yuan, the woman said.
She said most parents chose PC bottles, which were break-proof.
Most residents were not aware of the terms PC and BPA, the paper said.
Executive deputy secretary general of the International Food Packaging Association, Dong Jinshi, said most plastic feeding bottles were all right to use because China had a strict limit on BPA content in food packaging.
However, Dong said the plastic bottles would age after repeated high-temperature sterilization resulting in more BPA being leached.
Plastic bottles should be changed frequently, Dong said, although he recommended glass feeding bottles.
China was considering banning the use of BPA in plastic baby bottles, Thursday s Beijing News quoted a health official as saying.
Authorities have begun research on baby bottles containing BPA to assess the impact on infant health, said Li Ning, deputy director of the nutrition and food safety institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The EU will ban the use of BPA in baby bottles from June 1.
(Li Hao)
