Favourable findings for BPA
Meanwhile, the flip side of the BPA debate offers the following considerations:
In 2007, a 12-member panel of experts convened by The Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, part of the National Toxicology Program in the U.S., reviewed over 700 published studies and concluded that they had "some concern" that PBA exposure could cause neural and behavioural effects for fetuses, infants and children. They had "minimal concern" that exposure affects the prostate or accelerates puberty, and "negligible concern" for adults and their reproductive health.
Studies by The American Council on Science and Health found that BPA causes no adverse health conditions in humans and in February rejected calls for a baby bottle ban.
After sampling urine output from more than 2,500 people from ages 6 to 85, The Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. found that BPA does not accumulate in the body.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) declared the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of BPA for humans, based on observable toxic effects in animals, to be 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. Drawing its conclusions from completed leaching experiments, EFSA found that exposure was less than 30 per cent of the TDI.
After sampling urine output from more than 2,000 people from ages 6 to 85, The Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. found BPA exposure levels to be 1,000 times less than EFSA's TDI.
While your body can excrete BPA every 24 hours or so, Freeman notes that you can ingest these chemicals every day. "We're being exposed to this chemical on a chronic basis," he explains, but points to hopeful evidence on the other side of the world: "When Japan got rid of BPA in food containers, they measured before and after, and what they found was that the levels of BPA in the population went down by 50 per cent."
BPA investigations continue
The U.S. National Toxicology Program is reviewing the effects of BPA exposure on human health, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is looking into whether restrictions need to be placed on the chemical's use, and Health Canada is examining 200 chemicals "of interest to Canadians," including BPA. The report is expected in May 2008. In the meantime, outdoor retailer Mountain Equipment Co-op and Lulumemon Athletica have pulled their BPA water bottles from store shelves.
But Schwarz says the controversy is unwarranted. "It's unrealistic to point fingers at one specific compound. We are exposed to thousands and thousands and thousands of compounds every day in the food we eat, the water we drink, the cosmetics we use, the air we breathe," he says. "We worry about BPA but we allow the sale of cigarettes. It's ludicrous. When you have something that is killing people by the millions every year without a doubt, it's a known carcinogen and it's legally sold, and then you worry about trace amounts of a possible carcinogen."
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