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10/09/2008
The National Toxicology Program (NTP), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health, released on 3 September 2008 its final report on the safety of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical able to mimic the sexual hormone estrogen in living things.
The NTP’s report reveals there are “some concerns” for effects on the brain, prostate gland and on behavior in fetuses, infants and children; “minimal concern” for effects on the mammary gland and an earlier age for puberty for females in fetuses, infants, and children and for reproductive effects in adults who work with BPA; and “negligible concern” for fetal or neonatal death, birth defects or reduced birth weight and growth in babies born to women exposed to BPA during pregnancy and also for reproductive effects in adults who don't work with BPA.
However, the report does not say BPA should be banned but more research is needed to fully understand how the chemical affects human health.
"There remains considerable uncertainty whether the changes seen in the animal studies are directly applicable to humans, and whether they would result in clear advance health affects. But we have concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed,” NTP Associate Director John Bucher said.
The chemical has been under debate since April this year when a first draft of the NTP’s report revealed that their study on mice given BPA on regular basis resulted in precancerous prostate tumors, urinary system problems and early puberty when the animals were given low doses of the chemical.
The report was highly contested by plastic industry representatives who called the lab experiments inconclusive and flawed. But its results have been confirmed in time by other studies making consumers anxious over the possible adverse effects of BPA.
In August 2008, researchers at the University of Cincinnati linked BPA to heart attacks and adult onset diabetes through its ability to suppress the production in human fat tissue of a key hormone that protects people against these conditions.
In September, researchers, from the University of Guelph in Ontario and Yale University in Connecticut found that BPA causes the loss of connections between brain cells « that could cause memory or learning problems and depression ». The team has found that low-level exposure to BPA was able to block the formation of some types of synapses in the brain, the tissue that allows brain cells known as neurons to communicate with each other.
In the September 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a team of British researchers plubished a study tending to demonstrate that adults with higher levels of BPA in their urine were more likely to have heart disease or diabetes.
Despite these warnings, the US Food and Drug Administration maintains that there isn’t enough evidence to support banning BPA from baby and food products.
According to the FDA, the small amounts of BPA that leach out of containers and into food or milk are not dangerous. In Europe, the European Food Safety Administration (EFSA) said in July that BPA does not pose any human health risks. The EFSA said a scientific panel has found that adults and infants rapidly metabolize BPA and eliminate the substance.
In the United States some states are considering bills to restrict the use of BPA for the young, and Congress is assessing several possible remedies including a BPA ban in children’s products or a ban on BPA in packaging that touches food.
In Canada, the Minister of Health proposed in April to add BPA to Canada's list of toxic substances, which would make the country the first in the world to take such regulatory action.
BPA is used primarily to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, both of which are used in a wide range of common consumer products such as baby bottles, canned foods and beverages.
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