Baby Bottle Manufacturers Sued for Not Warning Customers That Their Plastic Bottles Could Leak Microplastics
Two of the largest baby bottle manufacturers, Handi-Craft and Philips North America, are facing separate class-action lawsuits for allegedly failing to warn parents that their baby bottles could leak microplastics, despite the fact that no plastic material exists that does not release microplastics under any kind of heat and pressure.
According to the lawsuits, the plaintiffs were “unable to determine…whether the Products are truly a safe choice and free of microplastics,” unless information on the packaging informed them that microplastics come from plastic. Such an inference, according to the plaintiffs, would require possessing “specialized knowledge, skill, experience, or education in plastic composition.”
The two baby bottle manufacturers use polypropylene, a material that garnered mass favor following the bisphenol A (BPA) ban from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012. Over 82 percent of all baby bottles sold worldwide are polypropylene, which is much safer when compared to most other materials. Clean Production Action, a nonprofit advocacy group promoting safer chemicals, named polypropylene as one of the “most benign” plastic chemicals in its Plastics Scorecard report. The material is also labeled a safe option by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The class-action lawsuits, however, allege the two companies failed to warn customers that the bottles released microplastics that could potentially interfere with babies’ digestive, reproductive, and immune systems. Customers felt misled by the “BPA free” label found on their products, which allegedly led them to think that the products were free of harmful chemicals and would not leak any microplastics upon being heated up.
The BPA label, however, was accurate—as the baby bottles, again, were made of polypropylene. The material has become ubiquitous among plastic containers that come into contact with food or drinks precisely because it is safer and less toxic than other kinds of plastics.
Nonplastic alternatives like silicone, stainless steel, and glass do exist too. But they carry their own sets of problems, such as increased cos
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