The National Toxicology Program (NTP) will host an April 23, 2013, Webinar to discuss case studies on the alleged health effects of bisphenol A (BPA) and the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate. The studies are intended to illustrate how the NTP Office of Health Assessment and Translation will implement its draft systematic literature-based review methodology in carrying out potential human health hazard assessments. Comments on the draft approach and case studies are requested by June 11. The BPA case study provides a draft protocol to evaluate the evidence for an association between obesity and exposure to the chemical, used in food contact materials, including plastic and metal cans; cash register receipts; sports equipment; and CDs and DVDs. It does not reach any final risk conclusions, but shows how relevant literature will be identified and rated in developing hazard identification conclusions.
Tag Archives BPA
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced a forthcoming public consultation to discuss its draft opinion on the potential health risks of bisphenol A (BPA). Slated for final adoption in November 2013, the draft opinion will take into account “ongoing scientific work on BPA at European and national levels” as well as the work of EFSA’s Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF Panel), which in February 2012 agreed to undertake “a full re-evaluation of the human risks associated with exposure to BPA” from both dietary and non-dietary sources. According to a March 26, 2013, press release, EFSA last completed a full risk assessment for the substance in 2006, concluding at the time that dietary BPA exposures for adults, infants and children “were all well below” the Tolerable Daily Intake set at 0.05 mg/kg body weight/day. Since the 2006 opinion, however, scientific experts and national…
A recent study has reportedly identified “an association between postnatal urinary bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations and asthma in children.” Kathleen Donohue, et al., “Prenatal and postnatal bisphenol A exposure and asthma development among inner-city children,” Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, March 2013. Columbia University researchers apparently used urinary samples collected from pregnant women during their third trimesters and from their children at ages 3, 5 and 7 years to conclude that BPA concentrations (i) “at age 3 years were associated positively with wheeze at ages 5 years … and 6 years,” (ii) “at age 7 years were associated with wheeze at age 7,” and (iii) “at ages 3, 5, and 7 years were associated with asthma measured at ages 5 to 12 years.” The authors also noted, however, that “prenatal BPA concentrations were associated inversely with odds of wheeze at age 5 years,” a finding that contradicted their initial hypothesis…
Food writer Tom Philpott has authored a March 13, 2013, Mother Jones article taking issue with a meta-analysis of bisphenol A (BPA) studies that toxicologist Justin Teeguarden recently presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the meta-analysis covered 150 exposure studies and 130 toxicity studies, and ultimately concluded that “people’s exposure may be many times too low for BPA to effectively mimic estrogen in the body,” according to a recent press release issued by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PPNL). In particular, Teeguarden argued that human BPA exposure usually occurs at levels well below detection, pointing to the combined results of exposure studies apparently showing “that human blood levels of BPA are expected to be too far below levels required for significant binding to four of the five key estrogen receptors to cause biological effects.” His research also…
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in a California state court against California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), which in January 2013 proposed listing the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) as a reproductive toxicant under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65). ACC v. OEHHA, No. ___ (Cal. Super. Ct., Sacramento Cty., filed March 1, 2013). Further details about OEHHA’s proposed BPA listing appear in Issue 468 of this Update. According to ACC, the agency’s scientific advisory panel, relying on the same document that OEHHA claims supports the listing—the National Toxicology Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (NTP-CERHR) Monograph on the Potential Human Reproductive and Developmental Effects of Bisphenol A—unanimously concluded in July 2009 that BPA does not satisfy the criteria for listing developmental toxicants under Prop. 65. NTP-CERHR apparently concluded that “the…
Duke University researchers have identified the mechanism by which bisphenol A (BPA) allegedly affects nervous system development by suppressing a gene “vital to nerve cell function,” according to a February 25, 2013, press release. Michele Yeo, et al., “Bisphenol A delays the perinatal chloride shift in cortical neurons by epigenetic effects on the Kcc2 promoter,” PNAS, February 2013. The study focused on cortical neuron development, during which time a protein called Kcc2 expels chloride ions that would otherwise “damage neural circuits and compromise the nerve cell’s ability to migrate to its proper position in the brain.” Using cell cultures from rats and humans, researchers purportedly found that BPA suppresses the gene responsible for Kcc2 production, raising concerns about whether BPA “could contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder found only in girls… [and] characterized by mutations in the gene that produces MECP2.” When exposed…
Joining the nearly dozen states that have enacted laws to restrict bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging—particularly with respect to children’s food and beverage containers—New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to sell or distribute food and beverage containers intended for use by young children that contain the chemical. The bill cites BPA studies alleging “cause for concern about the hazards of exposure to it, such as possible neural and behavioral effects caused by BPA in utero, and further concern that the chemical could cause problems in developing fetuses and young children.” Introduced by Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) and known as the “Child Food and Beverage Packaging Act,” the legislation would make it “an unlawful consumer fraud practice for a person to sell, offer for sale or distribute for sale in the state a food or beverage storage container made with or composed of BPA and…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a notice of its intent to list the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) as a reproductive toxicant under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65). The agency has proposed the action “under the authoritative bodies listing mechanism,” noting that the National Toxicology Program—Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction published a report in 2008 concluding that “the chemical causes developmental toxicity in laboratory animals at high levels of exposure.” Comments are requested by February 25, 2013. OEHHA has also proposed adopting a maximum allowable dose level (MADL) for BPA of 290 micrograms per day. Comments on this proposal are requested no later than March 11, 2013. According to the agency, “Some businesses may not be able to afford the expense of establishing a MADL and therefore may have to defend litigation for a…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that low exposures of a bisphenol A (BPA) alternative known as bisphenol S (BPS) also disrupt estrogen, raising questions about the chemical’s impact on human health. Rene Vinas and Cheryl Watson, “Bisphenol S Disrupts Estradiol Induced Nongenomic Signaling in Rat Pituitary Cell Line: Effects on Cell Functions,” Environmental Health Perspectives, January 2013. University of Texas researchers apparently sought to “characterize the non-genomic activities of BPS” at low doses by examining how it mimics “the effects of physiologic estrogens via membrane-bound estrogen receptors” in rat pituitary cells, “alone and together with the physiologic estrogen estradiol (E2).” The results evidently showed that, like BPA, BPS “disrupts membrane-initiated E2-induced cell signaling, leading to altered cell proliferation, cell death, and PRL [prolactin] release.” According to the study’s authors, BPS has replaced BPA in some thermal papers and plastics because it is “less likely to leach from plastic containers with…
A recent study has reportedly concluded that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure is associated with low-grade albuminuria in U.S. children, suggesting they may be at a greater risk for kidney and heart disease as adults. Leonardo Trasande, et al., “Bisphenol A exposure is associated with low-grade urinary albumin excretion in children of the United States,” Kidney International, January 2013. Using data from 710 children enrolled in the 2009-10 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers reported that those “with the highest as compared to the lowest quartile of urinary BPA [uBPA] had a significant 0.91 mg/g higher albumin-to-creatinine ratio, adjusted for urinary BPA concentration.” These results were evidently consistent with previous studies associating BPA exposure with low-grade albuminuria in Chinese adults. “Long-term observational studies will be needed to ascertain whether uBPA-associated changes in low-grade albuminuria potentiate the features of the metabolic syndrome—hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or insulin resistance— and augment the risk of…
