BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter, Chicago Sun Times

The city that blazed a consumer protection trail by banning phosphates would become the first in the nation to ban baby bottles and cups containing the potentially harmful chemical bisphenol A, under a proposal advanced by a Chicago City Council committee today.

Tests of laboratory animals have linked the chemical, widely-known as BPA, to breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has come under fire for concluding there is no harm from the low doses of BPA that come from eating foods from containers made with the chemical.

Last year, Aldermen Edward M. Burke (14th) and Manny Flores (1st) introduced a measure that would have banned nearly all products made with BPA used by children under 7. That proposal never went anywhere.

Today, they unveiled a softer version and rammed it through a joint City Council committee after just a few minutes of testimony.

The new version would narrow the scope of the ban to "any empty bottle or cup specifically designed to be filled with food or liquid to be used primarily by a child under the age of 3."

Stores would be required to post signs alerting consumers that items are BPA-free.

Enforcement would be shared by three city departments: Health, Environment and Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. But, Burke acknowledged that the ordinance would be largely "self-policing."

"Each of these retailers has a license they're concerned about. They're not gonna do anything to jeopardize their ability to have a license to do business in Chicago," he said.

Canada and the state of Minnesota have already banned BPA containers. Retailing giants such as Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us and CVS have pledged to stop selling products packaged in those containers. Chicago would be the first city to join the crusade.

"As Chicago goes, so goes the nation," Burke said, pointing to the phosphate ban spearheaded by former Mayor Michael Bilandic.

"You'll see that, when this is adopted, there'll be other jurisdictions all around the country trying to climb on the bandwagon."

Flores added, "We cannot afford to wait any longer for the FDA to take no action."

Margy Belschak, 31, was pregnant with her now 16-month-old son Frankie when she learned that the bottles she planned to use to feed him contained a potentially-harmful chemical and that, "even small doses can be very toxic."

"I actually chose to use a baby bottle that was BPA-free, but I had to look very hard to find one ... to make sure that was the case," Belschak said.

As Frankie cried in her arms, almost on cue, Belschak said, "As parents, we have a lot of things to worry about. We really don't need to be worrying about safe baby bottles."

The only testimony against the ordinance came from Dr. Stephen Hentges, executive director of the American Chemistry's Council's BPA study group.

Hentges acknowledged that BPA is "one of the best-studied substances." But, he also said, "When that evidence, in its entirety, has been reviewed, the weight of evidence leads to the conclusion from these many regulatory bodies that bisphenol A is not a risk to human health."