Latest Science on BPA Confirms Human Exposure and Dangerous Health Impacts

Posted by Laura Stevens on

 

The Latest Science on BPA Health and Exposure Report

On Wednesday morning, Toxics Action Center, a statewide environmental group, released the report “The Latest Science on Bisphenol A - January to July 2010”.  The report’s release comes one week before Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection scheduled public hearing over a statewide ban of the chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA.  BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic and is also used in the epoxy resins that line food cans, including many infant formula cans.  

The report is the most recent compilation of studies published in scientific literature between January 2010 and July 2010 concerning the exposure to and health impacts of bisphenol A.  Out of the 81 scientific studies included in this compilation, 75 of them conclude that humans are exposed to BPA or that there is one or more adverse health impacts associated with exposure to BPA.  

According to the report, “those 75 studies indicate that BPA is associated with early on-set puberty, diabetes, disruptions to growth hormones and developmental programming, different types of cancer, disruptions to gene expression, changes in external behavior, memory loss, interference with response to testosterone, male sexual dysfunction, heart disease, interference with brain function, impaired reproductive activity and genital formation, impaired embyonic development, obesity, impaired nervous system development, liver damage, interference with the immune system, asthma, low birth weight, and gastrointestinal inflammation.”

Said Laura Stevens, community organizer with Toxics Action Center, “The good news is we don’t have to keep using BPA.   Safer affordable alternatives to BPA are already widely in use.  A number of states have successfully banned BPA in certain consumer products.  These states are Vermont, Maryland, Minnesota, Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, and Washington.”  

Also present at the release of the report was Fred Horch, owner of F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies in Brunswick.  “As a business owner, my approach isn’t usually to outright ban things, but in some cases the evidence is so overwhelming that the need for a ban is clear.  This is the case with BPA.”

Stevens explained that under Maine’s Kids-Safe Products Act (KSPA), which Governor Baldacci signed into law in 2008, we have a unique opportunity here in Maine to protect our children from exposure to toxic chemicals.  The KSPA gives the Department of Environmental Protection jurisdiction over prioritizing the worst toxic chemicals in consumer products and then phasing them out in Maine.  The law is one of the most progressive chemical policy reform laws nationally and will likely be used as a model for federal reform of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the broken regulatory system intended to safeguard us from harmful chemicals. 

Here in Maine, said Stevens, where we have the opportunity to begin phase-out of the worst chemicals, the choice is clear.  “Given the overwhelming scientific evidence of the harm of BPA, the state of Maine should immediately ban BPA in consumer products sold in-state.”

The Board of Environmental Protection will be taking public comment next Thursday, August 19th, at the Holiday Inn Ground Round in Augusta.