The BPA Debate: How Much Is Safe? (Part 2)

Part one of this post reviewed recent statements from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that bisphenol A (BPA) is safe for its current approved uses and current exposure levels. In this post we’ll talk about some of the reasons why people disagree.

A main concern with BPA is prenatal exposure and exposure to children. Animal studies suggest BPA may have detrimental effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate glands in fetuses, infants, and young children, a concern the FDA has acknowledged. CBSNews.com reports that exposure to BPA during pregnancy may increase a child’s risk of breathing problems.A recent study led by University of Michigan researchers and published in the Endocrine Society’s journal Endocrinology finds that exposure to BPA during pregnancy can cause oxidative damage that may put the baby at risk of developing diabetes or heart disease later in life due to BPA’s endocrine disrupting properties.

BPA is no longer used in baby bottles, sippy cups, or infant formula containers, and many plastic bottles and drink containers are now labeled BPA free. Nonetheless, according to WebMD, more than 90% of us have BPA in our bodies right now, mostly from eating foods that have been in containers made with BPA. It’s also possible to pick up BPA through air, dust, and water.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences reports that the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found detectable levels of BPA in 93% of 2517 urine samples from people six years and older. The CDC NHANES data are considered representative of exposures in the United States.

A March 2014 article in Plastics News reports on findings by Cincinnati Cancer Center researchers indicating small amounts of BPA in men’s urine could be a cancer marker, making it the first study to claim that low-dose BPA may cause prostate cancer. The article goes on to say that the American Chemistry Council disputes the findings, and that another BPA study by the U.S. FDA and the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health found that low doses of BPA had no effect on the health of rats.

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an analytical technique used to measure BPA levels in food, soil, water and biological tissues. Read an application brief describing the use of HPLC with Coulometric array detection to measure bisphenols A and B and other xenoestrogens thought to play important roles in cancer generation and prevention.