Check your plastic water bottle and cut down your canned-food consumption: The chemical bisphenol A, better known as BPA, may be even more pervasive and dangerous than scientists thought. Science Newsreports on several new studies that point to further harmful health effects. Here’s a rundown of the findings:
Pregnant mice exposed to BPA suffered an irreversible change in one of the “master regulatory genes” of fertility, suggesting the same may happen to humans.
Rat hearts exposed to BPA along with estrogen were more prone to life-threatening arrhythmia, pointing to an elevated danger for premenopausal women.
A study of Harvard undergraduates found that students drinking out of polycarbonate bottles showed a much more immediate rise in BPA than expected.
Another study indicated that there are likely major sources of BPA contamination in our environment other than food, and that BPA may temporarily collect in body fat and slowly empty into the blood.
All in all, the new research makes a case for avoiding BPA whenever possible–and gives you some convincing talking points if you know anyone who still scoffs when you point out that they’re drinking from a BPA-laced water bottle. I hope the FDA, which still remarkably claims that BPA is safe, catches up with the science soon.
For tips on how to avoid BPA, see this post on Treehugger–but be aware, as the Winnipeg Free Pressrecently reported, that even bottles marketed as “BPA-free” sometimes contain the chemical.
(Thanks, Yahoo! Green.)
Source: Science News
UPDATE 8/18/09: Ask and you shall receive: The FDA just announced a new review of BPA research and expects to rule on its findings by November 30.
Image by pasukaru76, licensed under Creative Commons.
