AUGUSTA — Months of heated rhetoric and controversial comments ended abruptly with the sound of a gavel Tuesday as the Maine Senate voted unanimously to begin the phaseout of bisphenol-A, or BPA, from children’s products.
The vote follows a similarly decisive vote in the Maine House last week. Combined, the two decisions meet the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto by Gov. Paul LePage.
The governor had initially said he planned to oppose the BPA ban, an initiative that began last year when the chemical was reviewed under the Kid-Safe Products Act. However, the administration has since withdrawn amid statements from Republican leadership that the GOP planned to move forward with the phaseout.
It’s unclear if LePage will sign the emergency resolution or simply wait 10 days for the bill to automatically become law.
Maine will soon join Canada, Europe and six other states that have decided to phaseout the chemical.
The Maine House voted 145-3 to phase out BPA.
The LePage administration had previously dismissed concerns about BPA, which health groups say can cause serious health problems, particularly in children.
LePage’s plan to fight the ban was documented in his original regulatory reform package. The governor’s position had riled environmental and health organizations, and LePage added to the controversy when he joked during a press conference that the worst-case effect of BPA was that women would “grow little beards.”
The administration also cited a study by the World Health Organization that said there was insufficient evidence to justify a ban on BPA.
A LePage spokesman also said that BPA was one of the most studied chemicals and that market forces, not regulation, should determine whether it should be sold to consumers.
That opinion was echoed by Rep. Heather Sirocki, R-Scarborough, one of three House Republicans to vote against the ban. Sirocki, speaking from the House floor, also told lawmakers that she couldn’t support the ban because she wasn’t convinced that alternatives to BPA were safer.
Sirocki was joined in opposition by Rep. Larry Dunphy, R-Embden, and Rep. Beth O’Connor, R-Berwick. The three freshman lawmakers are among a block of tea party-backed Republicans elected to the Legislature last November.
The Environmental and Natural Resources Committee unanimously supported the ban.
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