Indonesian Drinking Water Depot Suppliers and Distributors Association (APDAMINDO) Chairman Budi Darmawan made assurance here on Thursday that the labeling of Bisphenol A, or BPA, will not impact the business of drinking water depots.
Darmawan made this statement in response to concerns that the BPA labeling on refillable or reusable water gallons that circulated in the community would hit small businesses, especially water-refilling depots.
“Since the start, we have expressed our support to the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM). We see that the labeling is basically for the safety of consumers, and the business world actually benefits from the business value chain adaptation itself,” he remarked.
BPA is a chemical compound primarily used in the manufacturing of various plastics. Many studies have linked exposures to BPA, a hormone mimicking chemical, to adverse health effects, including altered behavior and obesity in children, reproductive abnormalities, cardiovascular changes, and various cancers.
According to Darmawan, the bottled water industry is a business that has been around for more than 50 years, and of course, disruptive changes are natural, such as the BPA labeling on hard plastic gallons that dominate the market.
He noted that APDAMINDO anticipates the consumers’ increasing concern for product safety by participating in disseminating information on government policies regarding the dangers of BPA on gallons made from polycarbonate plastic.
“It is since this is related to the people’s habits. It takes time to change,” he stated.
Earlier, Deputy for Food Supervision of BPOM, Rita Endang, stated that the draft regulation for BPA labeling is limited to targeting reusable gallon products made from polycarbonate and BPA mixtures.
According to Endang, more than 50 million Indonesians consume branded bottled water daily. Of the total 21 billion liters of bottled water produced industrially per year, 22 percent of that figure circulated in the form of reusable gallons, she explained.
About 96.4 percent of the circulating reusable gallons contain BPA, and only 3.6 percent are made of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that is plastic packaging free of BPA, she added.
Source: Antara News