Four baby bottle products were found to contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical banned in the production of baby bottles, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The products are the PES, PP, and Pleasant Goat (喜羊羊) PES baby bottles by USBABY (台灣優生), and the PP baby bottle by BAB (台灣培寶).
The administration and local health bureaus last month carried out inspections on plastic baby bottles and pacifiers sold at 120 supermarkets, pharmacies and maternal-infant care product stores nationwide.
A total of 129 plastic baby bottle products were tests for BPA and plasticizers, and 52 pacifier products tested for toxic heavy metal and plasticizers.
FDA Southern Center interim director Liu Fang-ming (劉芳銘) said all pacifiers passed the inspections, but four baby bottle products, which had BPA-free printed on their packages, were found to contain BPA, adding that the companies have been ordered to recall the products.
He said that the administration had promulgated a ban on BPA in the production of baby bottles in March last year, because long-term exposure to high levels of BPA can interfere with a body’s endocrine, which could damage the cranial nerve system, causing developmental delays.
About 8,000 of the four baby bottle products have been produced, with 3,217 already sold and 4,783 required to be taken off shelves, Liu said, adding that the New Taipei City Public Health Bureau has asked the companies to provide compensation plans for customers.
Based on the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the administration asked the companies to recall and improve the products before Oct. 6, or face a fine of up to NT$3 million (US$90,226) if the products fail examinations.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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