Wal-Mart & Nalgene Removing Toxic Bottles, Place Consumers' Concerns First

U.S. & Canada Declare Health Risks from Bisphenol A

FALLS CHURCH, Va., April 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wal-Mart, the world's
largest retailer, announced today, that it was immediately removing baby
bottles and other products made with bisphenol A (BPA) from its Canadian
stores presently, and baby bottles containing BPA from its U.S. stores next
year, coupled with Nalgene's announced plans to phase out all BPA bottles was
applauded by environmental health organizations.

Several groups have stepped up their call for BPA restrictions with the
release of new findings of BPA in baby bottles, infant formula cans, Nalgene
bottles and human samples. Wal-Mart's and Nalgene's announcements come on the
heels of new U.S. and Canadian government warnings just this week: On Tuesday,
the U.S. National Institute of Health declared evidence of links to cancer
from bisphenol A. A coalition petition drive to ban BPA from all baby bottles
can be found at http://www.babystoxicbottle.org.

Mia Davis of Clean Water Fund: "It is great to see that both the U.S. and
Canadian governments are finally recognizing the scientific studies showing
risk for health effects from exposure to bisphenol A, and in the same week,
that Wal-Mart and Nalgene are appropriately responding to these serious health
risks by pulling BPA products from the market."

"We are delighted that Wal-Mart and Nalgene are doing the only sensible thing
in light of the reality that BPA in baby and water bottles show great risk of
causing harm to infants and consumers who drink from them," said Mike Schade,
of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. "We call on Target,
Walgreen's, and other major retailers to join Wal-Mart in protecting
consumers, especially children, from a chemical that more and more research
keeps showing is dangerous to our most vulnerable resource, our children."

The Wal-Mart announcement came about in part due to a letter from the Learning
Disabilities Association (LDA) of America. Maureen Swanson, Healthy Children
Project Coordinator for LDA says, "In animal studies, very low level exposure
to Bisphenol A has been linked to impaired learning, hyperactivity and
aggression. We applaud Wal-Mart's decision to protect our children's
developing brains and bodies from exposure to Bisphenol A in baby bottles, and
hope that their swift action spurs national efforts to ban use of this toxic
chemical altogether."

SOURCE Center for Health, Environment & Justice

Dianna S. Wentz, +1-412-512-3208, dianna@chej.org, or Stephenie Hendricks,
+1-415-258-9151, stephdh@earthlink.net, both of the Center for Health,
Environment & Justice