The FDA may be employing smoke and mirrors when it comes to their lack of action on bisphenol-A (BPA) legislation, but a new study that shows that the chemical does cause disease in adults will get kill the smoke machine.
E! Science News reports on findings from the UK’s Peninsula Medical School and the University of Exeter saying, “The [research] team analyzed new U.S. population data and their results are published by the online journal, PLoS ONE. The new study uses data from NHANES 2006-2006 U.S. population study. While the new study found that urinary BPA concentrations were one third lower than in 2003-2004, higher BPA concentrations in urine samples were still associated with heart disease in 2005-2006. Associations with some liver enzymes were also present. Their original paper in 2008 was the first to find evidence of associations between BPA and heart disease, and this new data confirms their earlier findings.”
In 2008 the team believed that higher urinary BPA concentrations may be tied to adverse health ramifications in adults, specifically when it came to liver function, insulin, diabetes and obesity. The team found that compared to the quarter of people tested to have the lowest BPA levels, those with the highest BPA concentration levels were more than twice as likely to report having heart disease or diabetes.
Professor David Metlzer, professor of epidemiology and public health at the university said, “This is only the second analysis of BPA in a large human population sample. It has allowed us to largely confirm our original analysis and exclude the possibility that our original findings were a statistical ‘blip’”. Professor Tamara Galloway, professor of ecotoxicology at the university, added that there is now the need to investigate the details of what causes these health risks and to what level they are connected with BPA exposure.
BPA is a highly controversial chemical that is used in countless items we interact with every day. In fact, the story on e! Science News says "it is one of the world's highest production volume chemicals, with over 2.2 million tonnes (6.4 billion pounds) produced annually, and it is detectable in the bodies of more than 90 percent of the population.” Plastic products such as water bottles and eating utensils, baby bottles and the interior lining of canned foods are just a few places you can find BPA.