MONTPELIER – Gov. James Douglas this week signed into law one of the country’s strongest bans on food containers that contain a common but controversial chemical that has been linked to health problems in several scientific studies.

Vermont’s upcoming ban of baby bottles and sports bottles that contain the chemical Bisphenol A – more commonly known as BPA – is matched only by a law passed in recent years by the state of Connecticut.

BPA is found in a host of food and drink containers, but public health advocates say evidence has increasingly showed it to be dangerous, especially for infants, young children and pregnant women.

“Vermont is now the second state to take this step and there are four other states that will take some other action to limit baby bottles and sippy cups containing BPA,” explained Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied for the new law this year.

Douglas signed the bill into law Wednesday, but several of the provisions won’t take effect until 2012 and 2014 to allow retailers to get items off the shelves and manufacturers to ensure that new shipments to Vermont don’t contain BPA.

The chemical industry claims that BPA use is safe and vital to ensuring the freshness of food items. But there is a growing consensus that the commonly used chemical – studies have suggested that 93 percent of Americans over the age of 6 have some level of BPA in their system – maybe harmful.

BPA was synthesized in 1890, but became a popular chemical in the creation of plastics in the 1940s and 1950s. The Food and Drug Administration found no problem with BPA in 1963 and 13 years later the Toxic Substance Control Act grandfathered in 62,000 chemicals, including BPA.

But many scientists and health experts have been ringing the alarm on the chemical for years, pointing to studies that showed the average level of BPA in humans are above the levels that are dangerous to animals.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other counties have banned outright BPA in baby bottles and formula and last year the World Health Organization announced it would launch a study to assess the health effects of the chemical.

The signing of the new law coincided with the release of a national report by the Public Interest Research Group that found new concerns with BPA. As part of the report, the organization collected 50 cans of food from 20 people in 19 states – including Vermont – to test for BPA levels.

The study showed that meals that use typical canned foods – such as peaches for breakfast, lentil soup for lunch, tuna casserole for dinner and bananas in coconut milk for a snack – would result in a person consuming a higher level of BPA than what is considered dangerous in animals.