One of the Most Common Chemicals Used in Modern Life Is Now Being Seen as a Health Threat

On Friday, in a substantial shift in policy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has "some concern" about the health effects of bishphenol A (BPA), particularly on infants and children. While not currently advocating regulation, the FDA is proposing steps that could lead to restrictions.

"We need to know more," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg during a press conference. But "as a precaution," the FDA has issued recommendations for reducing exposure.

This contrasts markedly with the FDA's 2008 assessment that declared BPA use safe in consumer products, including for infants and children. It also aligns FDA's views with those of the National Toxicology Program and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Bisphenol A is the chemical building block of polycarbonate plastics. In use since the 1950s, polycarbonates go into countless consumer products, including baby bottles, sippy cups, food containers, dishware, appliances, electronics, shatterproof lenses and sports gear. BPA also makes the epoxy resins that line most food and beverage cans and jar lids. BPA has numerous additional applications, including dental sealants. It is so widely used that scientists consider exposure ubiquitous and continuous.

"We know that trace amounts of BPA can be found in these [food] containers," said William Corr, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. "Recent reports of subtle effects of low doses of BPA on lab animals has raised concerns that we need to take a closer look at."

It's well documented that as these plastics age, are heated, or are used with acidic or alkali liquids—from certain vegetables, fruits or detergents, for example—BPA can leach out of finished products. Biomonitoring studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control has found BPA in over 90 percent of Americans tested. Studies published in 2009 found BPA in newborns' umbilical cord blood and in 75 percent of the infants being cared for in a hospital's neonatal unit.

Concern arises because BPA is known to be an endocrine disrupting chemical. In numerous animal studies BPA has been shown to interfere with hormones that regulate reproduction, development, metabolism and behavior.

"There are critical periods of development when exposure to BPA may lead to certain health effects, including behavioral effects, diabetes, reproductive disorders, development of certain kinds of cancers, asthma, cardiovascular disease and effects that can go from one generation to the next," explained Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Although hundreds of published studies now document such effects, they remain controversial from a regulatory perspective in part because low-dose effects challenge traditional dose-equals-poison tenets of toxicology. Birnbaum and Corr cited the need for more research to determine the human health effects of BPA. To this end, the NIEHS recently announced $30 million to fund new BPA studies.

In the FDA's announcement, Deputy Commissioner Josh Sharfstein said the agency would like to move BPA into a new regulatory framework that would allow the agency to respond quickly if it feels more research or regulation is required. "We would like to have a more robust framework for regulating BPA if and when necessary," said the FDA's Margaret Hamburg.

In response, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the trade association representing bisphenol A manufacturers, noted the lack of definitive proof of BPA's harm to human health. "While ACC recognizes that HHS and FDA are attempting to address public confusion about BPA we are disappointed that some of the recommendations are likely to worry consumers and are not well-founded," said the ACC.