Reply #7: New Study Says BPA Might Be Linked to Heart Disease [View All]

[RedEarth]

Plastic food containers are among common products that can contain bisphenol-A, or BPA

National Geographic News

Published January 15, 2010

Bisphenol-A, or BPA—a common, human-made chemical that enters most of our bodies everyday—has been linked to heart disease, a new study says.

BPA is commonly used in consumer plastics, particularly polycarbonate plastic items such as many sunglasses, reusable bottles, food packaging, and baby bottles. It also lines the inside of food cans.

In a sampling of U.S. adults, those with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were more than twice as likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than those with the lowest concentrations of BPA.

The findings almost perfectly dovetail with a 2008 study on the same topic, said study co-author Tamara Galloway, an ecotoxicologist at the U.K.'s University of Exeter.

"If you see it once, that's interesting," Galloway said.

"If you see it twice in a separate population, it's a strong indication that what you're seeing is not just some chance finding."

Frederick vom Saal, a BPA researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia, agreed that the two sets of "data are compelling and demonstrate repeatability"—the point at which scientific findings move from preliminary to validated.

Study co-author Galloway cautioned, however, that no direct cause-and-effect had been found between BPA and heart disease. It remains possible that the two may be only indirectly linked.

BPA Mimics Estrogen

The American Chemistry Council, which represents the U.S. plastic industry, says that "minimal" exposure to BPA poses no known risk to human health.

Still, BPA's ability to mimic estrogen—and spur reproductive mutations in the womb—has been well documented, leading some cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe to ban BPA-containing products.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100115-bpa-bisphenol-a-heart-disease/