Pregnant women, infants at risk
Star-Ledger (NJ), Amy Ellis Nutt
Published March 6, 2007
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--A plastic ingredient used to line many kinds of food and drink cans may be poisoning pregnant women and infants, according to study commissioned by an environmental advocacy organization.
Cans of commonly eaten goods, such as soup, fruit, vegetables and soda, were found to contain more than 200 times the acceptable level of bisphenol-A, the study says. BPA is a plastic resin repeatedly linked to a host of health problems including breast and prostate cancer, infertility, diabetes, obesity and asthma.
The food-packaging industry has used bisphenol-A in the linings of metal cans since the 1950s and'60s. It is also used to make hard plastic as well as lacquers for bottle tops, water pipes, even dental sealants and tooth coatings.
The laboratory experiments performed in this most recent study in March 2006 were contracted by the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization of scientists, lawyers and public policy experts based in Washington, D.C.
Since 1993, the group has been examining government, industry and scientific data for threats to human health and the environment.
In the working group's study, 97 canned foods from major chain supermarkets in Atlanta, Ga.; Oakland, Calif.; and Clinton, Conn., were tested for the presence of BPA. Included in that list were 20 of the top-40 canned foods most commonly consumed by women of childbearing age.
In nearly half of the 97 cans, the BPA dose in a single serving was found to be 200 times greater than the government's traditional standard for safe levels of exposure to industrial chemicals. Chicken soup, infant formula and ravioli had the highest levels of BPA.
The report went on to cite previous studies, including one which found BPA in more than 2,000 people worldwide. In another in the United State, 380 people out of 400 showed traces of the chemical in their systems.
The report sounded an alarm about the lack of federal oversight of the chemical.
"More than 100 peer-reviewed studies have found BPA to be toxic at low doses, some similar to those found in people, yet not a single regulatory agency has updated safety standards to reflect this low-dose toxicity," the report said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which last examined BPA exposure levels from food in 1996, has estimated that canned foods make up 17 percent of the U.S. diet. At the time of the review, the FDA refused to set a safety level standard for the chemical.
"What's truly alarming," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, "is that there is no governmental food standard, no drinking standard and essentially no limits on BPA in consumer products."
More than 6 billion pounds of BPA are produced worldwide, according to Pete Myers, CEO of Environmental Health Sciences, which publishes a daily online newsletter about the environment and public health, and some countries have voluntarily reduced the use of the plastic resin in canned food and beverages.
Japan, which has conducted numerous BPA studies of its own, dropped its production of the synthetic chemical from 430,000 tons in 1998 to a mere 100 tons in 2003.
Yesterday morning Houlihan presented copies of the group's 50-page report to 15 members of an expert scientific panel charged with reviewing the current data on BPA. Assembled by the National Institute of Health's Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, the federal panel convened yesterday for a three-day public hearing on its draft report.
A half-dozen plastics industry and public health scientists, including Houlihan, addressed the panel during the public comment section of the program.
While most of those present at the panel's public review session had not yet had a chance to look at the Environmental Working Group's Report, at least one scientist was familiar with the results.
"I think it's good we finally have hard data on BPA in U.S. canned goods, and I think the findings are troubling," said Myers of Environmental Health Sciences.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established generic safety standards for BPA 20 years ago. Since 1993, however, many scientists have discovered that low-doses of BPA can be harmful to the reproductive system and cause miscarriage and birth defects.
"We're living in an age of revelation in environmental health studies that are challenging the adequacy of current health standards," said Myers. "By comparison, our existing standards are in the scientific Jurassic. (This panel) is on a steep learning curve."
