Yesterday CBS’s Early Show reported on the latest FDA interest in Bisphenol A, better known as BPA. This time they were talking about BPA in canned food. As part of their story reporter Kelly Wallace chose to embark on a non-scientific “experiment” that was more than a little off base. In fact it was down right misleading. So, we reached out to the folks who are in charge of editorial oversight at the Tiffany Network. Our letter is below:

January 19, 2010

Bill Felling

National News Editor

CBS News

VIA Email

Dear Mr. Felling,

I am writing to draw your attention to several issues regarding basic journalistic standards as they relate to Kelly Wallace‘s report on the January 18^th edition of the Early Show. The package slugged “FDA: Limit BPA Consumption,” contained a non-scientific experiment that suggested a direct cause and effect relationship between Wallace’s personal BPA levels and the consumption of a single tuna sandwich.

One minute and twelve seconds into her report Wallace announced it was “lunch time” and was shown eating a tuna sandwich that she reported was made with canned tuna, packed in a can that contained BPA. She then had her blood drawn and sent to a lab for testing.

25 seconds later, she reported on the BPA levels found in her “first result”-the blood test taken “shortly after” eating the canned tuna. Dr. Fred Vom Saal told Wallace that the levels of BPA found in her blood were more than 5 times the average for women in the U.S.

Was Wallace suggesting to CBS News viewers and the science and medial community that consuming one tuna sandwich directly resulted in such a reading? These levels would be completely out of the bounds of normal scientific and medical research on BPA if that was the case. If Wallace did not mean to infer such a connection this portion of the package should be re-edited to explain that.

Next, Wallace made no effort to explain what, if any, actual negative effects occur when someone is found to have BPA blood levels that exceed the average. She failed to report that Health Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. FDA, determined that the amount of BPA in canned foods, like tuna, does not rise to the level of concern. Health Canada states:

• “To put this into perspective, the average Canadian would need to consume several hundred cans of food per day to reach the tolerable level established by Health Canada.”

While Canadian researchers found consumers would need to eat hundreds of cans every day to approach this level of concern, Wallace’s report appeared to suggest a single sandwich had this effect on her.

The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics states that Journalists should, “make certain that… video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.” Whether intentionally or unintentionally, in this case, Wallace’s work does just that.

We ask that you re-edit both the video and print versions of this story available on your web site.

Thank you for your attention and commitment to accuracy.

Sincerely,

Gavin Gibbons

National Fisheries Institute