More News on BPA
A new study released online on May 12th, 2009 in the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives tested the urine of 77 Harvard students for bisphenol-A (BPA) who drank cold beverages from polycarbonate beverage containers.
The study found that one week of polycarbonate bottle use increased urinary BPA concentrations by two thirds. Thus, regular consumption of cold beverages from polycarbonate bottles is associated with a substantial increase in urinary BPA concentrations irrespective of exposure to BPA form other sources.
Why is this important?
Well, it has been thought that BPA is mostly a danger when heated, but this study shows that BPA also leaches out of polycarbonate plastic when cooled. This is particularly relevant to the adult population that drinks mostly cold beverages in polycarbonate containers, while it is mostly polycarbonate baby bottles that contain warm liquids.
It seems that our exposure to BPA is greater than we thought, which only stresses the importance of passing regulation or legislation that goes further than baby bottles.
In other news, The Journal Sentinel released an article on May 16th, 2009 that exposes the shady dealings of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in regards to BPA. The Journal Sentinel actually obtained emails that prove they only used two industry funded studies and relied heavily on chemical industry lobbyists to determine that BPA is safe.
These emails show that government regulators relied specifically on the American Chemistry Council to do most of their work, even going as far as asking their opinion and asking them to review studies. Yet, they never asked the opinion of independent scientists who are BPA experts.
Last October, the FDA’s own advisory committee admitted that its examination was not thorough enough and that they ignored dozens of studies that showed the chemical caused harm. They were supposed to reopen their review on BPA, but so far nothing has changed and six months later the FDA has not yet held a public meeting on BPA safety! It is incredible that they can get away with this kind of behavior and endanger the health of millions of people, especially young children!
