Augusta - Environmental advocates parents, business owners, and doctors were among a group of people who expressed disappointment in the Governor's regulatory reform proposal released earlier this week.

The group spoke out in Augusta on Thursday accusing the Governor of trying to repeal legislation that they say protects children and families from the chemical known as BPA. The chemical is found in children's products like baby bottles and sippy cups.

A spokesman for the Governor says LePage has simply proposed a rule change.

Saying that Governor LePage believes federal regulators like the FDA and the EPA are better equipped to make decisions on product safety.

"There's 1700 chemicals of concern on the DEP's list of concerned chemicals," says LePage spokesman Dam DeMeritt. "The Kids Safe Product Act only allows the agency here in Maine to look at 2 chemicals per year. At that rate it's going to take 800 years to look at all the chemicals on the concerned list to make determinations. That's not an effective way. We don't have the resources to do it here in Maine."

Organizers of Thursday's event say Governor LePage's proposed environmental rollbacks, specifically the b-p-a rule go to far.

"Calling for a repeal of the BPA rule. Calling for a gutting of the kids safe products act and calling for Maine to become a Mississippi where we have the lowest possible minimal federal requirements for protection of our health," says Mike Belliveau, the Executive Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center.

Environmental advocates say recent studies have linked the chemical BPA to certain forms of cancer, learning disabilities, obesity, and other ailments.

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