School Meals Allegedly Linked to Chronic BPA Exposure
School meals may contain enough bisphenol A (BPA) to exceed low-dose
toxicity thresholds, according to Stanford and Johns Hopkins
researchers. Jennifer Hartle, et al., “Probabilistic modeling of school
meals for potential bisphenol A (BPA) exposure,” Journal of Exposure
Science and Environmental Epidemiology, September 2015. Using
federal school nutrition guidelines as well as information obtained from
San Francisco Bay Area schools, the researchers modeled BPA exposure
scenarios for elementary and middle schoolers consuming a mix of fresh
and packaged foods at school lunch. The results evidently showed exposures
ranging from 0.00049μg/kg-BW/day for a middle-school student
with a low-exposure breakfast, to 1.19μg/kg-BW/day for an elementaryschool
student eating a high-exposure lunch.
“During school site visits, I was shocked to see that virtually everything in
school meals came from a can or plastic packaging,” Stanford Prevention
Research Center Postdoctoral Fellow Jennifer Hartle is quoted as saying. “Meat came frozen, pre-packaged, pre-cooked and pre-seasoned. Salads
were pre-cut and pre-bagged. Corn, peaches and green beans came in
cans. The only items not packaged in plastic were oranges, apples and
bananas.”
In particular, the study claims that, even though the BPA contained in a
single meal did not exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s oral
reference dose (RfD) of 50 μg/kg-BW/day, some of the doses were “at
the same order of magnitude” as the low-dose toxicity threshold—2 μg/
kg-BW/day—indicated by animal studies. To this end, the authors warn
of “the potential for school meals to expose children to chronic toxic
levels of BPA.”
“Even a dose of one extra microgram per day could be a big deal. If this
is an avoidable exposure, do we need to risk it? If we can easily cut it
out, why wouldn’t we?,” opines Hartle. “The bottom line is more fresh
fruits and vegetables. There is a movement for more fresh veggies to
be included in school meals, and I think this paper supports that.” See
Stanford News, September 24, 2015.
Issue 579
