AG HEALEY CALLS ON FDA TO PROTECT CHILDREN
FROM TOXIC METALS IN BABY FOOD
Petition Follows Congressional Report that
Found Commercial Baby Food Manufacturers are Selling Food Contaminated with
High Levels of Toxic Metals
BOSTON — Massachusetts
Attorney General Maura Healey today joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general
in petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect the
health and well-being of babies across the country by accelerating actions to
remove toxic heavy metals from infant and toddler foods.
Today’s petition responds to rising alarm about the health hazards posed by
dangerous heavy metals in these foods, and the failure of baby food brands and
their suppliers to aggressively reduce these hazards. In February, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform
published a report
that found that four of the country’s largest commercial baby food
manufacturers are selling food contaminated with high levels of toxic heavy
metals including arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. Last month, the committee
issued a follow up report
urging the FDA to move quickly and efficiently to set limits for the toxic
metals in baby food.
“Each year, thousands of babies are born
in Massachusetts and we need to do everything we can to keep them healthy and
safe,” AG Healey said. “We’re calling on the FDA to protect children from the
serious developmental risks associated with these dangerous metals by taking
immediate steps to remove them from baby food.”
The
FDA does set limits on toxic metals in other consumable products — like bottled
water, juice, and candy — but the agency has failed to adequately regulate baby
food, and has, so far, only established one action
level for one type of heavy metal (inorganic arsenic) in one type of baby food
product (infant rice cereal). The FDA itself has concluded that babies’
and young children’s smaller body sizes and metabolisms make them more vulnerable
to the toxic impacts these heavy metals can have on the developing brain.
The
coalition’s petition seeks to strengthen protections for young children by
urging the FDA to issue interim action levels for limiting heavy
metal contamination in baby food more swiftly than the timelines announced
by the FDA in their “Closer to Zero plan,” announced this past
April. Under the current plan, the FDA would propose: guidance on
limiting lead in baby food by the middle of 2022, guidance for
limiting inorganic arsenic by April 2024, and guidance for limiting cadmium and
mercury sometime after April 2024. The members of the “Baby Food
Council” — a group created in 2019 by four of the largest baby food
brands — have not publicly committed to meeting any particular
voluntary targets for reducing the levels of heavy metals in their
products, pending FDA action.
The
petition specifically calls on the FDA to:
- Propose limits for inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, and
mercury in relevant categories of infant and toddler foods;
- Propose
a lower limit for inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal than those that
are currently set forth in FDA guidance; and
- Instruct
all baby food manufacturers to test their finished products for toxic
heavy metals.
The coalition
of attorneys general urge the FDA to take these actions no later than
April 2022, the shortest timeframe for requesting FDA action on a petition
under the agency’s regulations.
Joining
AG Healey in sending today’s petition are the attorneys general of New York,
California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan,
Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont,
Washington and Wisconsin.
Handing this
matter for Massachusetts are Assistant Attorney Brian Clappier and Deputy
Division Chief Turner Smith of AG Healey’s Environmental Protection Division
and Assistant Attorney General Abby Eshghi of AG Healey’s Children’s Justice
Unit, with assistance from paralegal Carly Pusateri, also of AG Healey’s
Environmental Protection Division.
