Campbells loses a customer

While I hate to keep beating the BPA drum, I couldn't let this pass without comment, since it is affecting my own consumer choices. ABC News had a reporter from Consumer Reports on air a couple days ago discussing the presence and levels of BPA in canned goods. This is nothing new, though it's nice to see mainstream media outlets covering the issue. However, I was shocked and disgusted by Campbell Soup's comment to ABC News regarding the amount of BPA leaching out of its own cans:

The Campbell Soup Co. told ABC News, "While the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence clearly supports the safety of BPA, Campbell is currently researching alternatives. To date, no satisfactory alternative has been identified for a broad range of products."

Really? "The overwhelming weight of scientific evidence clearly supports the safety of BPA..." Is this a joke? The exact opposite is true. This idiotic comment was enough to make me decide to boycott Campbell soup products. Not that I am a huge consumer of its products to begin with, but making a comment like this, which runs counter to science and which comes dangerously close to dismissive, is enough for me to say goodbye to any of the company's products. I would actually have more respect for a company that uses BPA and acknowledges its risks but continues using it than I do for a company that uses the chemical and then disavows any science linking BPA to a host of health problems--especially when that science is as close to conclusive as I think possible.

In some ways, I think a lot of companies are still operating in a Mad Man-esque milieu. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which companies will go to in order to disavow science that suggests their products might need...improvement. Typically, they'll spend huge amounts of money to discredit good science--money which would be better spent taking toxins out of their products. Their blind spot--and it is a huge one--is the one that misses the legions of consumers who would trample to the store to buy products from companies that honestly assess the science, make the adjustments necessary, where feasible, and that are candid about those adjustments they haven't made, for reasons of cost. It's a shame that the only canned food company currently using BPA-free lining is Eden Organics, despite the fact that the technology is already extant. I do not argue that linings are not important--crucial--to keep food safe. I only argue that linings containing BPA contain a chemical demonstrated to be unsafe at low levels and that there are alternatives.

UPDATE: New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof wrote this column in Sunday's New York Times about the latest information on BPA in canned goods. It's heartening to see the mainstream media treating this as the serious issue it is.