I am a mom with three young children. Last June I helped bring over 800 petition signatures to Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection calling to get bisphenol A (BPA) out of children’s food packaging. Like hundreds of parents in Maine, I am outraged that cans and jars of baby and toddler food contain BPA right in the linings which leaches into the food at hormone-disrupting levels linked to serious health effects — like breast cancer and developmental disabilities.

Now, parents like me are waiting for Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection to make a decision — whether to adopt a rule to phase out BPA from baby and toddler food packaging, and send that rule to the Legislature in 2013 for a vote. As far as I am concerned, the decision should have already been made. The state already found BPA dangerous enough to get rid of it in reusable containers. Why would we leave it in our food packaging? There are already safer and affordable alternatives to cans and jars lined with BPA that are already on the store shelves. So why should we delay at all?

I am writing to ask the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to act swiftly on this rule for BPA-free food. My kids grow older every day, and I am counting on the Maine BEP to protect them while they are still young and most vulnerable to toxic chemicals. If a product is on our shelves, it should be safe.

Annie Colaluca

Waterville

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