There’s a lot happening in the world of BPA to report. First and foremost is that Canada plans to ban BPA in baby bottles. Here in the U.S., on April 18, 2008, the NIH’s National Toxicology Program concluded that there was “some concern” that fetuses, babies, and children were at risk because the BPA levels found in nearly all humans has been shown to harm animals. This is the first government agency in the U.S. to conclude, after reviewing nearly 500 animal studies, that low levels of BPA in humans could be dangerous. The main concern is reproductive development and health, as BPA mimics the hormone estrogen. If you’d like to see the report, the PDF is located on this site. A few stats from the NTP brief:
- How much BPA leaches depends more on the temperature of the food/liquid than on the age of the polycarbonate.
- BPA can be found in breastmilk.
- The highest estimated intake of BPA is in infants and children.
- BPA is detected in 93% of the 2517 urine samples from people over the age of 6. Children under 6 were not studied.
- In laboratory animals, neonatal rats do not have the ability that adult rats have to metabolize BPA as efficiently. It is not known if this is the case for humans as well.
- In laboratory animals, high doses of BPA have been found to delay puberty, cause growth reductions, and even lead to death. The doses of BPA here were hundreds of times higher than the amounts found in humans. However, animal studies have found that BPA in smaller doses, as small as those found in the U.S. population, can lead to neural and behavioral alterations, precancerous lesions in the prostate and mammary glands, altered prostate gland and urinary tract development, and early onset of puberty in females.
Also exciting is that Democrats introduced a bill in late April to ban BPA in all plastic products made for children up to age 7 in the U.S. To find out more about the latest developments on BPA, see zrecs.blogspot.com.
Sites worth visiting:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm
http://zrecs.blogspot.com/search/label/BPA?max-results=100
http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2008/02/z-report-on-bpa-in-infant-care-products.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plastic.html?incamp=article_popular
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-na-plastic16apr16,1,498138.story
Posted by Health, Taken Seriously » New research shows BPA damages monkey brain synapses on August 1, 2009 at 4:56 pm
[...] of 93% of Americans over age 6. In April of this year, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) said their was “some concern” over the chemical’s safety, especially in children and [...]