Regulatory agencies aren’t doing their job in protecting the public, researchers are saying.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical found in certain plastics. It’s been labeled an enemy because of the possible negative effects it can have on the health of fetuses, infants and children. It can damage brain development and the prostate gland. Bad news.
What’s extra-bad is that, until rather recently, you could readily find BPA in baby bottles, toys and all sorts of food containers. Because of the danger it presents, manufacturers started producing many comparable products that were “BPA Free”.
And so it would seem that the general public is now in the clear. We aren’t at risk of being damaged by the chemical, right?
A new study, however, is saying “not so fast”.
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Researchers from Washington State University have developed a new, more accurate way of measuring BPA levels in humans. And they say they have found we have a lot more of the stuff in us than you might think.
The standards set out by regulatory agencies such as the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are flawed, they say. The FDA, scientists say, seems to be underestimating our BPA exposure levels by as much as 44 times.
“This study raises serious concerns about whether we’ve been careful enough about the safety of this chemical,” said Patricia Hunt, a Washington State University professor and author of the study.
“What it comes down to is that the conclusions federal agencies have come to about how to regulate BPA may have been based on inaccurate measurements…Our hypothesis now is that if this is true for BPA, it could be true for all the other chemicals that are measured indirectly,” Hunt added.
Worried? Me too. But it keeps life interesting. For more on this study, click here.
