BPA: New Study Finds Human Exposure Levels To Be Greatly Underestimated

Even as the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) reasserted its opinion on the safety of low levels of bisphenol A (BPA) for humans, a new peer-reviewed study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives (Sept. 20),  has concluded that current human exposure levels have been greatly underestimated.

As reported in The Atlantic, the new research has found that the potentially hazardous chemical can enter the human body via multiple routes and is far harder for our bodies to metabolize than previously believed. The study examined both mice and rhesus monkeys, the latter selected because they are good predictors of how the human body absorbs this type of chemical. Eighteen hours after exposure, the monkeys' blood still contained active BPA—a finding that suggests we have "grossly underestimated current human exposure levels."

BPA is everywhere, with the CDC concluding that more than 90 percent of Americans are chronically exposed. Such pervasiveness is, in the words of one of the study's seven authors, Dr. Frederick vom Saal, "nothing short of insanity." The University of Missouri endocrinologist also does not hesitate to use the word "scary," comparing today's use of BPA to the use of lead in paint a century ago.

Read the EFSA story.

Read the full story by John Hendel at The Atlantic