Toxic Nation | Pollution. It's In You.

A new study found some 92% of people tested between 2003 and 2004 had measurable amounts of bisphenol A in their urine. Findings are published in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. The concentrations were in a few parts per billion in urine, and were substantially higher than levels that have triggered birth defects and other diseases in animal studies. Researcher Antonia M. Calafat and her colleagues at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. add to the growing number of studies on bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking agent that can have notable health impacts even in tiny exposures.

Calafat’s data shows men tend to have lower concentrations of bisphenol A than women. The big difference was in children. Kids, 6 to 11 years old, had on average 4.5µg/liter compared to adults with 2.5 µg/liter of bisphenol A in their urine.

The answer to why children excrete more bisphenol A is not know yet, but there are different theories. It could mean that kids are exposed to more bisphenol A, or that they cannot break it down as efficiently.

Dr. Frederick S. vom Saal, a long-time researcher into bisphenol A at the University of Missouri-Columbia, posits that kids, especially newborns, have lower levels of the enzyme needed to break down bisphenol A in the body. Either way, kids are much more vulnerable to the effects of hormone disruptors, such as bisphenol A, because they are going through a sensitive period of organ and brain development.  It is a time when our physiology is being programmed for the rest of our lives.

Read the article ‘How Plastic We’ve Become: our bodies carry residues of kitchen plastics’ in the latest edition of Science News.

Cassandra