-Caveat Lector-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/03/sciplastic103.xml
NEW WARNING ABOUT CHEMICAL IN PLASTIC
by Roger Highfield
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/08/2007
A warning about a possible link with breast and prostate cancers from
a hormone-like chemical found in everyday plastic products such as
food containers and water bottles has been issued by an international
expert group.
Earlier this week a study of animals concluded that exposure within
the womb to bisphenol A (BPA), a bulk chemical used in the production
of plastics and resins, could cause changes in offspring linked with
diseases such as obesity, cancer and diabetes.
Now new evidence has been published linking the chemical to possible
health effects as an expert group of 38 researchers from around the
world studying BPA issued a "consensus statement" in the journal
Reproductive Toxicology based on more than 700 studies.
The statement was on the potential human impact of this ubiquitous
chemical, one that has effects similar to those of the female sex
hormone oestrogen, drawn up after a meeting sponsored in part by the
US Government.
Lead author, Prof Fred vom Saal of the University of Missouri,
Columbia, said this work marks the first expert verdict on the impact,
enough to warn the public: "BPA has become a chemical of "high
concern" only in recent years, even though BPA was shown to stimulate
the reproductive system in female rats and thus to be an
"environmental oestrogen" in 1936," long before it was first used in
plastics and resins in the early 1950s.
Animal studies in recent decades have raised concerns about the
potential for a relationship between BPA and a spectrum of illness,
from abnormal development of reproductive organs to early sexual
maturation in females, behavioural problems such as attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder and autism, an increase in childhood and adult
obesity and type 2 diabetes, decrease in sperm count, and an increase
in hormonally-influenced cancers, such as prostate and breast cancers.
BPA does not persist in the environment but, due to the large amounts
in use, exposure as a result of it leaching out of food and beverage
containers is continuous and "within the range that is predicted to be
biologically active in over 95% of people sampled."
The chemical industry has said that levels are too low to cause
concern but Prof vom Saal said that some effects are seen at extremely
low doses in animal studies - "even below one part per trillion" - and
there are particular concerns about the unborn and newborn child,
where "epigenetic effects" may be the cause of harm by changes, not to
genes themselves but the way they are used in the body.
A new study published in the journal by a team including Laura
Vandenberg of Tufts University, Boston "for the first time, concludes
that the levels of BPA measured in people are higher than levels
sufficient to cause a range of adverse effects in laboratory animals."
A second study by Retha Newbold of the US National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences likened the effects of BPA to another
hormone-like chemical diethylstilbestrol (DES) in women some years
ago, notably uterine fibroids, cystic ovaries, and excessive growth of
the lining of the uterus. "These data suggest that BPA causes
long-term adverse effects if exposure occurs during critical periods
early in life."
The consensus group concludes from a broad survey of these and other
data in a workshop that exposure is widespread and "may increase
susceptibility to development of cancers in some organs, such as the
prostate and mammary glands?, that exposure early in life "may result
in persistent adverse effects in humans" and that the "function of the
immune system can be altered following adult exposure to BPA."
However, they did highlight areas of uncertainty and suggestions for
future research on uptake of BPA and whether it can accumulate in the
body, the effects down generations, among other things. There is also
a lack of human data and now studies have to be done to hunt for links
between BPA exposure and ill health.
"The fact that very few epidemiological studies have been conducted to
address the issue of the potential for BPA to impact human health is a
concern, and more research is clearly needed. This also applies to
wildlife, both aquatic and terrestrial."
"The latest opinion of the European Food Standards Authority - January
2007 - is that BPA is not an issue at trace levels i.e. that which
could potentially be consumed from food and drink intake," commented a
spokesman for the Chemical Industries Association in the UK. "We think
they are right".
*
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