February 28, 2011

Maine and BPA: a brief history

(Continued from page 2)

Major donors to GMU, however, include Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and Searle Freedom Trust, both of which spend millions annually supporting right-wing ideological interests, according to SourceWatch, a Wikipedia-like website devoted to exposing front groups "trying to manipulate public opinion on behalf of corporations or government."

"It's part of an actual, deliberate strategy by the chemical manufacturers to what's called to 'manufacture doubt'; this comes from the tobacco industry playbook," Belliveau said.

Tobacco companies funded studies, he said, just like the chemical industry has done on BPA, so they could use them to sway public opinion.

Demeritt said the reports were evidence of a lack of scientific consensus on the effects of BPA.

"Before reporting that the entire scientific community supports a ban, please look at these reports from the World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority," Demeritt wrote in the e-mail.

Pingree, the former House speaker, said she's optimistic that the BPA rules will withstand the scrutiny.

"I got the sense that ... that legislators on both sides of the aisle, when they really heard the facts that this is targeted toward only these baby products and that we'd be the ninth state at least to do this, it might be more of a no-brainer than is being portrayed," she said. "I don't know why the governor is picking such a fight on this because it seems like a good, slam-dunk, common sense issue for both parties."

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