A new study suggests a common chemical used in everyday products such as plastic drink containers and baby bottles has been linked to several health problems, specifically heart disease and diabetes.
Environmental and consumer activists who have questioned the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, have relied on studies showing harm from exposure in laboratory animals, until now.
BPA is often found in plastic food and drink packaging, although people are also exposed to BPA through drinking water, on their skin and in household dust.
Previous research in the US found detectable levels of BPA in more than 90% of the population.
The study by researchers from the UK’s Peninsula Medical School in Exeter analyzed urine and blood samples from 1,455 U.S. adults aged 18 to 74 who were representative of the general population.
They found that the 25 percent of people with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were more than twice as likely to have heart disease and, or diabetes compared to the 25 percent of with the lowest levels.
“Most of these findings are in keeping with what has been found in animal models. This is the first ever study (of this kind) that has been in the general population,” said Iain Lang, a researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain who worked on the study.
The design of the study did not allow for anyone to conclude BPA causes heart disease and diabetes, according to Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry group.
“At least from this study, we cannot draw any conclusion that bisphenol A causes any health effect. As noted by the authors, further research will be needed to understand whether these statistical associations have any relevance at all for human health,” Hentges said.
The influential US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are publishing the study to coincide with a hearing on BPA.
A spokesperson from the UK’s Food Standards Agency said an expert panel was keeping the safety of BPA under review.
Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri and John Peterson Myers of the nonprofit U.S.-based Environmental Health Sciences, wrote in a commentary accompanying the study:
“The study, while preliminary with regard to these diseases in humans, should spur U.S. regulatory agencies to follow recent action taken by Canadian regulatory agencies, which have declared BPA a ‘toxic chemical’ requiring aggressive action to limit human and environmental exposures.”
BPA is a one of the world’s highest production-volume chemicals and is found in hard plastic items such as: drinking glasses, baby bottles, food-storage containers, the lining of food and beverage containers, and dental sealants.
It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the coating in most food and beverage cans and in dental fillings.
BPA can be consumed when it leaches out of plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside a container.
The team said the chemical is present in more than 90 percent of people, suggesting there is not much that can be done to avoid it. They said it was too early to identify a mechanism through which the chemical may be doing harm.
However, researchers also cautioned that these findings are just the first step and more work is needed to determine if the chemical actually is a direct cause of disease.
Professor Alan Boobis, a toxicology expert based at Imperial College in London, said the study did not fit with previous research into the chemical.
“It’s an interesting finding, which we can’t ignore. But it is preliminary, and requires following up.”
Some say it could just be a chance finding.
“For some people a raised risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes could simply be down to drinking too many high sugar canned drinks,” said Professor Richard Sharpe, of the University of Edinburgh.
He believes more research was needed to tease out the truth before BPA could be labeled as the prime suspect.
“Bisphenol A is one of the world’s most widely produced and used chemicals, and one of the problems until now is we don’t know what has been happening in the general population,” said Tamara Galloway, a University of Exeter researcher who worked on the study.
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