The Maryland Chamber joined together with a number of business groups to oppose HB 833, legislation that seeks to ban a wide range of popular consumer products that contain Bisphenol-A or specified Phthalates.

This legislation would needlessly deprive consumers of products with a distinguished safety profile to advance what former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called a “phony health scare.”

Many target products are made from commonly used materials such as polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, both of which are created from Bisphenol A. Such products include shatter-resistant baby bottles, eyeglass lenses, bicycle helmets, and components in vital life-saving medical devices. The bill ignores current scientific findings, and shows a lack of knowledge of current personal care product manufacturing methods.

Legislating what products and/or chemicals can be used or sold in the state, without sound scientific data, is ill-advised, and it would likely have a tremendous downstream impact on consumers, employees, businesses, and even State and local governments. For more information on this bill, click here (pdf).