SCCS - Public consultation on the preliminary Opinion on the safety of presence of BPA in clothing articles

Public health community

Final Opinion
on the safety of presence of BPA in clothing articles

The European Commission and its Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published the final Opinion on the safety of presence of BPA in clothing articles.

Final Opinion

A public consultation on the preliminary Opinion on the safety of presence of BPA in clothing articles was open on the website of the Scientific Committees from 16 October to 7 December 2020. Information about the public consultation was broadly communicated to national authorities, international organisations and other stakeholders. The SCCS received 25 comments from six different interested parties.

Each comment and reference submitted during this time was carefully considered by the SCCS. Where appropriate, the text of the relevant sections of the Opinion was edited or explanations were added to pertinent comments. The literature list has been updated with relevant publications

Results of the public consultation

Content of the Opinion

The Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety is providing a scientific opinion on “The safety of the presence of BPA in clothing articles”. The main purpose of the scientific opinion is to provide scientific support to assist the Commission in assessing the risk of the presence of BPA in clothing articles and the potential need for legislative amendments in the chemicals legislation and/or enforcement measures under the General Product Safety Directive.

In particular, the SCCS is asked to:

1. To review the available data on the presence and activity of BPA in clothing articles, taking into consideration the adopted opinions on tolerable intake limits and the legislative framework in other products (food contact materials, toys and printed paper);
2. To determine whether the exposure levels to BPA due to the use of clothing articles raises health concerns for consumers and, if possible, to provide indications on limit values for BPA content/release from clothing articles;
3. To identify whether vulnerable consumers such as infants and young children (who might put such articles in their mouth) or pregnant women are in particular risk. On the basis of the risk assessment, it could indicate what level of exposure to BPA from textiles can be accepted in such groups.