Experts studying the chemical bisphenol A said on Wednesday they have gathered a growing body of evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health, Reuters reported.
An official statement on Wednesday by The Endocrine Society called for better scientific studies into BPA’s effects.
The group’s annual meeting presented several studies that show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources.
Manufacturers use the chemical, which belongs to a broad class of compounds called endocrine disruptors, to stiffen plastic bottles, line cans and make smooth paper receipts.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have examined the chemical’s safety, without much evidence showing it’s harm on human health.
But Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who is president of the Endocrine Society, presented evidence suggesting that endocrine disruptors do have effects on male and female development, prostate cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease.
A scientific statement issued by the society admitted the evidence is not yet overwhelming, but is worrying.
Evidence in mice has shown that the compounds could affect unborn pups.
“We exposed some mice to bisphenol A and then we looked at their offspring,” said Dr. Hugh Taylor of Yale University in Connecticut Taylor.
He said even when the mice had a brief exposure to endocrine disrupters during pregnancy, the mice exposed to these chemicals as a fetus carried the changes throughout their lives.
They found that BPA changed the mice’s DNA through a process called epigenetics, in which chemicals attach to the DNA and alter its function.
Studies in the past have shown that most people have some BPA in their blood, although the effects of these levels are not clear, Taylor noted.
Tests on monkeys showed the body quickly clears BPA, which may at first sound reassuring, but when tests show most people have high levels, this suggests they are being repeatedly exposed to BPADr, according to Frederick Vom Saal of the University of Missouri, who has long studied endocrine disruptors.
Vom Saal said he is concerned that there is a very large amount of bisphenol A that must be coming from other sources.
BPA could affect the heart cells of female mice, sending them into an uneven beating pattern called an arrhythmia, according to Dr. Scott Belcher of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and colleagues.
He said the effects were specific on the female heart, since the male heart does not respond in this way. Belcher said this was because BPA interacts with estrogen.
Such findings could help explain why young women are more likely to die when they have a heart attack than men of the same age.
Last year, U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences expressed concern that BPA may hurt development of the prostate and brain.
British researchers produced a study in 2008 that linked high levels of BPA to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.
Vom Saal said between 8 and 9 billion pounds of BPA are used in products every year and results from the various studies suggest that the average person is likely exposed to a daily dose of BPA that far exceeds the current estimated safe daily intake dose.
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