Update on BPA

There's been a lot of Bisphenol-A (BPA) information in the news lately, and we thought we'd bring you a round-up of the latest. We've updated our BPA fact page with this information and more.

BPA in Dental Sealants

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a study in their October 2010 issue which finds that the BPA contained in dental sealants can break down upon exposure to saliva, and that BPA levels can spike to 88 times higher than normal immediately after dental sealing. The BPA spikes, and then levels out after a few days but it is unclear what cause this has on the body. The San Francisco Chronicle's parenting blog The Mommy Files reports that pregnant women should keep this in mind if having dental procedures.

The Science Community Can't Agree

The New York Times published a 3,000 word article that outlines much of the complication over studying BPA. It can't be studied by testing humans, and similar testing sometimes yields different results. While we've made it clear on this site that we are concerned with the results showing an increase in major health issues including reproductive issues, attention span in children, and increases of diabetes and obesity, the scientific community isn't all in agreement about the health effects.

"John A. Katzenellenbogen, a chemistry professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and an expert on how hormones works in cells, does not work with BPA but said he had seen researchers who study it argue bitterly at conferences, over supposedly identical experiments that had somehow yielded opposite results."

- New York Times.

In response to the Times article, Wendy Gordon consulting editor for the NRDC wrote that the article perfectly illustrated why the need for a clear Toxics Substances Control Act is necessary:

The problem is not that most studies raise concerns. As summarized recently in the report of the Presidential Panel on Cancer and the Environment titled "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk," many studies link BPA and several diseases, including various cancers, while some do not -- those coincidentally that are funded by industry.

It's that the law provides no clarity on how to deal with the uncertainties of environmental health research, providing well-monied lobbyists an opportunity to do as they are wont to do when a law is weak and cry, "The science is all junk. And besides, you will never be able to live without this product."

- Wendy Gordon, On Earth.

Take Action!

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is working hard on Capitol Hill to get BPA out of baby packaging by including the ban into the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. After a partisan summer, the ban language was removed from the main body of the act's language and will be voted on separately as an amendment to the bill.

Please click through to the Breast Cancer Fund's site to send a letter to your Senators asking to support this important amendment.