The Canadian agency is giving the public - and industry - 60 days to comment on its report. Health Minister Tony Clement said the agency will ban BPA in baby bottles if no new information appears.
"We have put the onus on industry to tell us why we shouldn't ban it [from baby bottles]," Clement said. "We have to get the BPA out of baby bottles."
Bisphenol A is ubiquitous: More than 6 million pounds is produced annually in the United States, and the industry continues to assert that the chemical is safe.
"We do not think that bans are warranted by the science," said Steven G. Hentges, who is in charge of BPA issues for the American Chemistry Council, the industry's trade group.
Some critics say the FDA should do more. "They haven't gone far enough," said Pete Myers, chief scientist for Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit that raises awareness of chemical risks. He has been raising alarms about the chemical since the early 1990s.
"There's too much exposure," he said. "The biggest source of exposure is canned food. Japan has dramatically reduced levels that get into food from cans. We can do that too."
In Washington, Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York said the chemical should be banned from children's products and food-packing containers. "At best FDA gave Americans a false sense of comfort about a questionable substance. At worst, they put millions of Americans directly at risk," Schumer said.
Schumer said he will introduce a bill Monday that would ban the chemical and fund a public health campaign to warn of its potential risks to infants. Other lawmakers are expected to propose similar measures.
Via e-mail yesterday, FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency had formed a task force earlier this week that "will decide whether FDA's current approach to BPA needs to be changed." He said the group would look at the NTP report as well as the Canadian government decision.
david.kohn@baltsun.com
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
