FDA Plans More Research on Bisphenol A; Canada Urged to Protect Pregnant Women from Chemical

According to the director of the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, the agency will conduct additional analysis of the effects of bisphenol A on human health after its panel of independent science advisors called the agency’s position on its safety flawed. Laura Tarantino reportedly said that a lot of work remains; she would not indicate if the reassessment would take months or years.

Among the issues the FDA is apparently exploring is the cumulative exposure people face over a lifetime given the chemical’s presence in food and beverage containers, plastic medical devices and coatings on gel tablets. A spokesperson for an environmental organization was quoted as saying, “More years of research by FDA to determine what thousands of scientists worldwide already know about the toxic chemical is a waste of time, taxpayer dollars, and will place millions of babies yet to be born at risk.” See The Washington Post, December
16, 2008.

Meanwhile, public health and environmental advocates are reportedly calling on Canadian officials to prohibit bisphenol A altogether. They claim that the government’s proposed ban on bisphenol A in baby bottles will not protect pregnant women from exposure, and they expressed concern about its affect on developing fetuses. Health Canada is apparently studying fetal exposures and has identified pregnant women and fetuses as “a potentially sensitive subpopulation,” but has no exposure data yet. According to a news source, bisphenol A exposure primarily occurs through diet, but it is also found in household dust and is used in dozens of other consumer products such as compact discs and dental sealants. See Globe and Mail, December 16, 2008.

In a related development, researchers in Cincinnati, Ohio, have reportedly concluded that low doses of bisphenol A inhibit the release of a key fatty tissue hormone that increases insulin sensitivity and reduces tissue inflammation. Eric Hugo, et al., “Bisphenol A at Environmentally Relevant Doses Inhibits Adiponectin Release from Human Adipose Tissue Explants and Adipocytes,” Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2008. The authors observe, “any factor that suppresses adiponectin release could lead to insulin resistance and increased susceptibility to obesity-associated diseases.” They examined human adipose tissue from the breast and abdomen of patients
undergoing breast reduction and abdominoplasty and exposed the tissue to low nanomolar concentrations of bisphenol A, which, they conclude, “may indeed be the bona fide endocrine disruptor that adversely affects metabolic homeostasis and its manifestations.”