It’s my second day back at CLCV from maternity leave, and this new mom just got the best welcome-back news: Governor Jerry Brown has signed the bill banning toxic BPA in baby bottles and children’s sippy cups! This is a huge victory for the thousands of babies who will be born in California this year–including mine–and for environmental advocates, who have worked for years to make this common-sense ban on a toxic chemical in children’s feeding products a reality.
One of the questions that stayed on my mind while I was on maternity leave was whether or not the governor would sign the ban on BPA, authored by environmental champion and Assemblymember Betsy Butler. I know Governor Brown cares deeply about children’s health, but the powerful chemical industry had won this battle and stopped the ban in the state legislature before. Would they triumph again?
The answer is a resounding NO. Victory is ours! All of the thousands of CLCV members and other environmental champions who took action, who signed our petition supporting the ban, then wrote emails to and called their members of the state Assembly and the state Senate (both when it was in policy committees then later up for floor votes), then finally contacted the governor, proved themselves to be more powerful than the deep-pocketed chemical industry. You won out over their tainted millions, which they spent in a desperate move to try to confuse decision-makers with fake “science,” all to maintain the status quo. Moments like this are rare in politics, even here in environmentally-minded California, so let’s take a moment to celebrate this important victory.
As we’ve noted before on this blog and in our messages to our members, BPA-free products are already widely available in our state, but up until now, BPA-free was not the law of the land. While I’ll be giving my 12-week old son a bottle of milk free of toxic BPA tonight, California’s families will soon have the same access to clean, BPA-free feeding containers no matter where they shop. Thank you Governor Brown, thank you Assemblywoman Butler, and thank you CLCV members and all those who proved that our voices can make a difference.
– Jenesse Miller Communications Director, CLCV
