Washington, Sept 18 - Health worries about a chemical found in many plastic products have created opportunities for companies catering to the growing market for products made without bisphenol A.
But the plastics and food packaging industries, which defend the safety of bisphenol A or BPA, argue that particularly for certain uses there are no alternatives that can do everything BPA can do.
And they caution that chemicals that may be embraced now as safer alternatives to BPA eventually might turn out to pose their own set of health concerns.
Some scientists and activists said a major study published on Tuesday linking BPA to heart disease and diabetes will put more pressure on regulators to crack down on the compound. They want BPA banned at a minimum in children's products such as baby bottles.
BPA has been used in many products for decades. It is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a transparent, durable and shatter-resistant material in products including water bottles, plastic utensils and medical devices.
But it can leach out of plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside a container.
Some retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target, are phasing out products made with BPA.
"Large retailers are moving away from BPA products. I think it's going to force manufacturers to switch to BPA-free products only, in feeding (products) or in toys or whatever else you can think of that has BPA," Ron Vigdor, president of Florida-based company BornFree, said in a telephone interview.
Vigdor said BornFree has seen big increases in sales of its range of BPA-free products including plastic baby bottles and cups made of Polyamide PA, a form of nylon.
Nalgene launched a line of water bottles made from a new type of plastic made by Eastman Chemical Company called Tritan copolyester, which is not made with BPA but boasts BPA's good qualities such as transparency and shatter resistance. Nalgene is owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
Spokeswoman Tracy Broadwater said Eastman Chemical is scaling up production capacity for Tritan, introduced last year, with new facilities to be ready by late 2009.
Industry officials said the big chemical companies and food package manufacturers are exploring alternatives to BPA, but said banning the chemical would be unwise and unwarranted.
"An alternative would have to be found that, number one, works, that provides the necessary function. The second big hurdle is that the alternative should be at least as safe," Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council industry group said in a telephone interview.
BPA makers include Dow Chemical, Bayer, Sunoco Chemicals and Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Hentges said.
John Rost, chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, representing the food and beverage packaging industry, said there is no alternative that works as well to prevent spoilage and extend shelf life for canned foods as the the epoxy resins made with BPA used as lining in cans.
These epoxy coatings became the "gold standard" 25 years ago, replacing an earlier generation of materials. "With the use of epoxy coatings, shelf life of foods virtually doubled overnight," Rost said.