By Maria Cendejas

According to USA Today, the federal government announced that baby bottles and sippy cups can no longer contain the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA).

The U.S. chemical industry's chief association, the American Chemistry Council had asked the FDA to phase out rules allowing BPA in those products in October, after determining that all manufacturers of bottles and sippy cups had already abandoned the chemical due to safety concerns.

It is illegal for companies to use substances not covered by FDA.

"Consumers can be confident that these products do not contain BPA. The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food," a FDA spokesman Allen Curtis said in a statement. “The agency's action was based on the bottle industry's phase out of the chemical.”

The chemical industry's request may help curb years of negative publicity from consumer groups and head off tougher laws that would ban BPA from other types of packaging because of health worries.

Legislation introduced by some members of Congress would ban BPA nationwide in all canned food, water bottles and food containers. Chemical makers maintain that the plastic-hardening chemical is safe for all food and drink uses. It is found in hundreds of plastic items from water bottles to CDs to dental sealants.

Some researchers say ingesting the chemical as an endocrine disruptor can interfere with development of the reproductive and nervous systems in babies and young children. They point to dozens of studies showing such an effect from BPA in rodents and other animals.

But the FDA has stated that those findings cannot be applied to humans and has refused to ban BPA in food packaging materials.

The federal government is currently spending $30 million on its own studies assessing the chemical's health effects on humans.

About 90% of Americans have traces of BPA in their urine, mainly because the chemical leaches out of food and beverage packaging. The greater part of canned goods in the United States are sealed with resin that contains BPA to prevent contamination and spoiling.  Canned food manufacturers have used the chemicals since the 1950s and it is approved by the FDA.

It is unknown what types of alternative will be used to replace the role BPA plays in the making of all types plastics and other materials and how safe they are, compared to BPA.