Last year, FDA disappointed us by insisting that there was no cause for concern about the presence of the chemical bisphenol A in food and beverage containers. An expert panel charged with evaluating the FDA’s draft assessment strongly criticized the agency for its severely limited exposure assessment and the criteria it used to assess BPA studies. Then, Suzanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (who’ve won multiple awards for their coverage of BPA and other chemicals) reported that FDA’s report “was written largely by the plastics industry and others with a financial stake in the controversial chemical.”

Yesterday, the agency finally announced that it’s reviewing new studies about BPA and will let us know by the end of November whether it’s safe to use the chemical in food and beverage containers. Meg Kissinger has the story, and you can check out the Journal Sentinel’s “Chemical Fallout” series for more background.