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Research Highlights New Questions About Bisphenol A

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 12:40 CST

Researchers have reported findings that suggest a heavily scrutinized chemical used in plastics, known as bisphenol A, remains in the body much longer than previously considered. In addition, people may be exposed to it through sources other than food.

Much controversy revolved around BPA in 2008, when government agencies began issuing reports about its possibly dangerous side effects, which prompted some retailers to pull products containing the compound from their shelves.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which announced more plans in December to continue researching health effects of BPA, has declared the compound to be safe based on the assumption that it was excreted quickly and that people were exposed to BPA primarily through food.

But Richard W. Stahlhut, of the University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center, and colleagues reported new findings that suggest that contradict those assumptions.

"Our results simply do not fit that picture," said lead author Stahlhut, "The research community has clues that could help explain some of these results but to date the importance of the clues have been underestimated. We must chase them much more vigorously now."

His team studied the urine 1,469 U.S. adults. Samples were obtained through the Center for Disease Control's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). They found significant levels of BPA even in the urine of people who had fasted for 15 to 24 hours.

Stahlhut expected to see a relationship between the last food ingested, fasting time, and BPA levels.

"If it leaves the body quickly, then it reduces the amount of time when it can cause problems. If it does cause problems, obviously if it stays around much longer, then that changes the game," Stahlhut, whose study appears in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, told Reuters.

People who had fasted for 8.5 hours had about the same BPA levels in their urine than those who had fasted 24 hours.

"In our data, BPA levels appear to drop about eight times more slowly than expected – so slowly, in fact, that race and sex together have as big an influence on BPA levels as fasting time," Stahlhut said.

Researchers said other explanations may exist. For example, exposure to BPA might come through other means, such as house dust or tap water.

Also, Stahlhut theorizes that BPA may seep into fat tissues, where it would be released more slowly.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 93 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their urine.

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On the Net:

• FDA, Bisphenol A (BPA)
• Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, Chemicals - Bisphenol A
• CDC
• University of Rochester

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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