BPA Exposure Higher From Paper Than From Cans
December 2, 2011 — It seems there’s no escaping the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which is used to make plastics like water bottles and to coat the insides of aluminum cans.
Now a new study shows that BPA is also in a wide variety of paper products, including napkins, toilet paper, tickets, food wrappers, newspapers, and printer paper. “The concentrations are very high in the paper products,” says study researcher Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD, a research scientist at the New York State Department of Health.
Kannan tested more than 200 paper samples from 15 different types of products.
He found BPA levels in paper that were 100 to 1 million times higher than amounts detected in canned and packaged foods.
The study is published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Researchers say that because only a fraction of that is absorbed through the skin, most people probably pick up far less BPA handling paper than they do from their diets. But those amounts may wind up being significant for people like cashiers or printers who have to touch a lot of BPA-tainted paper as part of their jobs.
“We’ve been focused on food, but there could be certain groups of people that could be exposed through other routes and other sources,” says Joseph Braun, PhD, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, who is studying how BPA may affect kids’ behavior. He was not involved in the latest study.
In Braun’s studies, pregnant women who worked as cashiers had BPA levels that were about 30% higher than pregnant women who had different kinds of jobs.
BPA in Recycled Paper
How did BPA get into paper? Probably recycling, researchers say.
A thin coating of powdered BPA is used on some kinds of heat-sensitive paper, like cash register receipts, shipping labels, and lottery tickets.
Researchers estimate that tossed thermal paper contributes about 33.5 tons of BPA to the environment each year. About 30% of thermal paper winds up being recycled, introducing BPA into many different kinds of items. That’s concerning, researchers say, because BPA is chemically similar to the hormone estrogen. It has been linked to problems with reproduction and sexual development, to behavioral and developmental problems in young children, and to some kinds of cancer.
Experts say such studies are suggestive, but not conclusive. And they insist that there’s no danger from BPA in paper.
“These are trivial exposures,” far below the tolerable safe levels of BPA set by the Environmental Protection Agency, says John Heinze, PhD, executive director of the Environmental Health Research Foundation in Chantilly, Va., a nonprofit organization that does research for the American Chemistry Council, an industry group. “They don’t really raise any concerns for safety. That’s really what their data show.”
How Much BPA Do People Pick Up From Paper?
For the study, researchers tested 103 different thermal receipts collected from supermarkets, banks, libraries, gas stations, and restaurants in seven U. S. cities, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. Japan phased out the use of BPA in receipts in 2001.
Researchers also tested 14 other kinds of paper products including flyers, magazines, bus and train tickets, envelopes, newspapers, food wrappers and cartons, airplane boarding passes, luggage tags, printing paper, business cards, napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper.
- Ninety-four percent of the thermal receipts tested positive for BPA, including some receipts that claimed to be BPA-free
- The levels of BPA detected on the receipts were much higher than for other paper products.
- The highest concentration of BPA found among other kinds of paper was in tickets, followed by newspapers.
Researchers then estimated how much paper products might contribute to a person’s total daily BPA exposure.
Cutting BPA Exposure
Based on their models, if an average person handled thermal receipts twice each day, and other kinds of paper five to 10 times a day, they’d get about 2% of their total daily exposure to BPA from paper products.
For cashiers, it was assumed they would touch receipts around 150 times a day, which could contribute as much as 51% of their daily BPA exposure.
Researchers say that if people want to cut their exposure to BPA in paper, they should be careful about how they handle receipts.
If you don’t need one, don’t take it, Kannan says. If you do need a receipt, some retailers will email it. If a hard copy is your only option, head to the sink soon after. “Whenever I touch a thermal receipt paper, immediately I wash my hands,” Kannan says.
For cashiers, he says, wearing gloves would probably help cut the amount of BPA absorbed through the skin.
SOURCES:
Kannan, K. Environmental Science and Technology, Sept. 23, 2011.
Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD, research scientist, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany.
Joseph Braun, PhD, research fellow, department of environmental health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.
John Heinze, PhD, executive director, Environmental Health Research Foundation, Chantilly.
Prenatal BPA Exposure Effect on Emotional Health in Girls
BOSTON—Exposure to the industrial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) before birth may lead to behavior and emotional problems in preschoolers, particularly girls, according to a new study published in the journalPediatrics. The findings add more fire to the already hot debate about healthy hazards associated with BPA exposure.
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health examined data from 244 mothers and their young children in the Cincinnati area who were taking part in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment Study. They characterized gestational and childhood BPA exposures by using the mean BPA concentrations in maternal (16 and 26 weeks of gestation and birth) and child (1, 2, and 3 years of age) urine samples, respectively. Behavior and executive function were measured by using the Behavior Assessment System for Children 2 (BASC-2) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool (BRIEF-P).
They found 85% of the mothers and 96% of the children had detectable levels of BPA in their urine. There was little difference between the mothers’ in-pregnancy and at-birth levels of BPA. The BPA levels in the children’s urine samples decreased from age 1 to age 3, but they were higher and varied more than their mothers’ levels.
After adjusting for other possible influencers, BPA levels in pregnancy were linked to more hyperactive, aggressive, anxious, and depressed behavior and poorer emotional control and inhibition in the girls, but not the boys.
The researchers concluded gestational BPA exposure affected behavioral and emotional regulation domains at 3 years of age, especially among girls. Clinicians may advise concerned patients to reduce their exposure to certain consumer products, but the benefits of such reductions are unclear.
China Leaps Ahead of the US in Banning BPA in Baby Bottles
China bans Bisphenol-A in baby bottles -vows death penalty for serious safety breaches
China has become the latest country to ban the use of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in baby bottles, while Government officials signalled increasing use of the death penalty to crack down on food safety violators. BPA is currently banned in Europe, Canada and the United Arab emirates.
The Ministry of Health, in conjunction with five other government bodies, issued notices yesterday confirming that inclusion of BPA in the manufacture of infant bottles would be outlawed as of June 1, 2011.
From September 1, 2011 on, it will be illegal to import or sell any BPA-containing baby bottles, said the notice.
Beijing also urged local food inspectors to step up scrutiny on baby bottle producers to ensure compliance with the new measure.
The European Union announced at the end of last year that it was banning BPA in baby bottles. Production of containers with BPA was prohibited from March 1, 2001, with a ban on the importation and sale due to come into force June 1, 2011.
BPA is a monomer used in the manufacture of polycarbonate bottles. Its continued use in food contact materials remains a source of ongoing debate as it has been linked with serious health problems – including cancer, birth defects and heart disease. However, major food safety agencies across the globe – including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – have declared it poses no health hazards at current levels.
Death penalty
Further to Beijing’s target announced a few months ago of punishing food safety violations more severely, government chiefs have ordered the courts to hand out stiffer penalties to offenders.
The Supreme People’s Court said judges should impose the death penalty to those guilty of food safety crimes that result in human fatalities.
Those convicted of committing several violations in the same case – such as production and sale of counterfeit and sub-standard goods – should receive the harshest punishment available, added a Supreme Court notice last week.
Offenders should also be fined more heavily and/or banned from producing food.
Food crime team
A leading Beijing official announced the likely formation of a crack police squad to clamp down on the rising number of adulteration scandals amid growing public concern.
Ji Lin, vice-mayor of the city and director of the city’s food safety commission, said the new team would target the surroundings between the urban and rural areas as they had become production hotbeds for counterfeit or unsafe food.
BPA in 1st Trimester of Pregnancy
PRENATAL EXPOSURE TO BPA RAISES WHEEZING RISK IN CHILDHOOD
A study has found that when pregnant women, especially those in their first trimester, are exposed to bisphenol A (BPA), their children have twice the risk of suffering from wheezing at six months of age suggesting, if confirmed by further research, a possible need for pregnant women to avoid BPA during pregnancy.
BPA has been used for over 40 years in the manufacture of many hard plastic food containers and in the lining of metal food and beverage cans, and is found on thermal paper cash register receipts. Trace amounts have been found in foods from these containers, and some research has suggested negative health risks.
In 367 pairs of mothers and infants, a link between higher detectable levels of BPA in the urine of pregnant mothers, and the reported incidence of infant wheezing, was found to exist only among the youngest children. For example, there was no link found among children by three years of age. This study was presented late in the May 1, 2011 session of the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, in Denver. It will be published in a future issue of a pediatric journal.
Tips on How to Reduce Your Exposure to BPA
This article appeared following the publicity on how to reduce blood levels of BPA simply by eating fresh vs. canned food.
BPA is found in some water bottles, plastic food storage containers, plastic food wrap, sealing wrap and inside of food cans (the white plastic-like liner you see in cans) and thermal receipt paper. BPA is a hormone disruptor that is associated with at least heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, infertility and ADHD.
Valuable tips to help you and your family cut back on your exposure to BPA are highlighted in blue. While these suggestions are a good start, they only addresses food sources of BPA. Our bodies are exposed to BPA from non-food sources daily. One doctor suggests a more zen approach to looking at the situation – “we can’t be perfect, but we can be better.”
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Eat Fresh
March 30, 2011 — Families who gave up canned foods and food and beverages prepared and packaged using plastic containers saw their levels of a hormone-disrupting chemical fall by 66%, a new study shows. All it took was three days of eating only freshly prepared, organic foods.
The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is found in many kinds of plastic food packaging, such as some water bottles, food storage containers, and sealing wrap. It is also used to line the inside of food cans.
BPA is an endocrine-disrupting chemical that has been associated with a host of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, and infertility in adults, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
“The study provides clear evidence that food packaging is the major source of people’s exposure to bisphenol A and the phthalate known as DEHP,” says study researcher Ruthann A. Rudel, MS, director of research for the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass.
Phthalates are chemicals that make plastics strong, transparent, and clear.
“And that we found just by substituting fresh foods with limited packaging for three days, we reduced exposure levels in these participants by more than half,” Rudel says.
The study is published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Avoiding Sources of BPA
For the study, researchers from Silent Spring and the Breast Cancer Fund, in San Francisco, recruited 20 people from five different families in the San Francisco area by posting on listserv sites.
The families were chosen based on answers to questions about how often they ate food from cans, drank water from plastic bottles, drank from an office water cooler, ate restaurant meals, or microwaved in plastic containers — all sources of exposure to BPA and phthalates.
Monica Laurlund, 40, from Alamo, Calif., signed up her son, daughter, and husband because breast cancer runs on both sides of their family.
“To me, it seemed like an interesting way to find out if I’m being as healthy as I can be,” she says.
Researchers took urine samples from each family member before, during, and after the study to check for levels of BPA and other chemicals found in plastics.
For three days, a caterer who had been specially coached to avoid preparing food exposed to chemicals from plastics delivered meals prepared from fresh and organic fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats.
- The cooks were instructed to avoid contact with plastic utensils, and nonstick cookware and foods had to be stored in glass containers with BPA-free plastic lids. Researchers even told food preparers not to overfill the containers so the food wouldn’t touch the plastic lid.
- Microwaving in plastic was out; so was using coffee makers with plastic parts. Coffee drinkers got their morning coffee from French presses or ceramic drip models.
- Participating families gave up water in plastic bottles in favor of stainless steel.
- Eating out was also avoided since other studies have shown some restaurant meals to be high in BPA.
By the end of the study, urine tests showed the average BPA level dropped 66%, from 3.7 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) to 1.2 ng/mL. Levels of DEHP metabolites dropped by about half, from 57 ng/mL to 25 ng/ML.
People who started the study with the highest BPA levels saw even bigger reductions — 76% for BPA and about 95% for DEHP metabolites.
“Especially after finding out the results, we have completely eliminated the plastics and the canned food,” Laurland says. “It’s really very simple things, and overall, those things are healthier for you anyway.”
“What sold me on it is that I can easily take that toxic chemical out of my body and I don’t have to worry about it,” she says.
Why Worry About BPA?
Participants saw their levels drop, but science still doesn’t know whether or not that matters.
“What the question is, is exactly how much risk, and to whom, from this kind of exposure? We’re at a point where that’s still emerging,” Rudel says.
Still, the existing science has been compelling enough for Canada, which banned the use of BPA in baby bottles in 2008.
In the U.S., Eden Organic has started to sell foods in BPA-free cans. Several states have acted to limit the use of BPA, and similar bills are pending around the country.
The FDA is still studying that question, but so far, says that there’s no need for families to change how they eat.
The food industry supports that statement.
“We agree with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that foods packaged in cans with epoxy linings that utilize BPA are safe, and that there is no need for consumers to change their consumption habits,” the Grocery Manufacturers Association says in a statement. “That position is supported by the findings of numerous food safety agencies around the globe, such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in the EU, Germany, Japan, UK, Canada, and Australia-New Zealand, which have all repeatedly confirmed the safety of BPA and continue to reaffirm the safety of BPA, including at levels comparable to those found in the exposure survey published in EHP.”
What Studies Show
Animal studies have shown an association with high and low levels of BPA with problems in neurodevelopment and reproductive development.
In 2008, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found that adults with the highest levels of BPA in the study had more than twice the risk of getting diabetes as adults with the lowest levels.
But most studies such as these can only show associations; they can’t prove that the chemicals are directly causing health problems.
Nira Ben-Jonathan, PhD, a professor of cell and cancer biology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, has studied what happens to cells when they are exposed to BPA in test tubes.
In one study, her team found that BPA exposure protected breast cancer cells from chemotherapy. In another, it made cells ignore a hormone that protects against the development of diabetes.
Even seeing those changes in cells, she said she had reservations about the message of this study.
“Interesting, but not as striking as one would expect,” says Ben-Jonathan, who reviewed the study for WebMD. She said she found it suspicious that even after adhering to such a strict regimen that some chemical traces remained.
“That suggests to me that they’re also getting BPA from nonfood sources,” she says.
And if that’s the case, she wonders, is it practical to advise people to make such big changes if it’s not possible to really avoid the chemical?
“To tell people only to use organic food and they can reduce their BPA levels, I don’t think so,” she says. “It’s so prevalent. … It’s not just food.”
She said the greatest good could be accomplished if manufacturers made packaging changes.
“We are in an industrial world. We are surrounded by plastics. It’s very difficult to avoid it. I think that the food industry and the chemical industry should really avoid using bisphenol A if they can find an alternative. Not all plastics can do this,” she says.
The Can Manufacturers Institute says they are working on alternatives.
Advice for Consumers
Richard W. Stahlhut, MD, MPH, an environmental health researcher and preventive medicine specialist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York, who has studied BPA exposure, says he tries to take “a Zen approach.”
Stahlhut says when he’s at home he tries to avoid plastics unless he needs them. If he can’t avoid plastics, he tries not to worry too much about it.
“You can’t be perfect, but you can be better,” he says.
Stahlhut, who reviewed the study, says it appears to be well done and shows that you can make a big dent in BPA exposure by making straightforward changes to how you cook and eat.
And that those reductions are probably prudent, even though knowledge about BPA is still incomplete and probably will be for decades to come.
“Since it takes 10, 20, 30 years to find out, the best approach is that if you don’t need an exposure, reduce it when you can. And when you can’t, be Zen about it, because we don’t know for sure that it’s bad anyway.”
In particular, experts said, it’s probably smart to avoid heating food in plastic containers or covered in plastic wrap, since heating makes the chemicals in plastic break down more quickly and leach into food.
“Just say no. But be Zen about it,” he says. “Because that’s where we are in history. 100 years from now, we’ll have new problems, but these are the ones we have now.”
SOURCES:
Rudel, R. Environmental Health Sciences, March 30, 2011.
Ruthann A. Rudel, MS, director of research, Silent Spring Institute, Boston.
Monica Laurlund, study participant, Alamo, Calif.
Statement, Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Lang, I. Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 16, 2008.
FDA: “Update on Bisphenol A for Use in Food Contact Application.”
Stahlhut, R. Environmental Health Perspectives, May 2009.
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Reduce BPA Levels in Your Body With Diet
DIET CHANGE REDUCES BISPHENOL A (BPA) LEVELS 
It has been unclear whether body levels of the hormone disruptor Bisphenol A, or BPA, come from BPA-treated cans and packaging, or from other BPA-containing products, such as shower curtains and toys.
The same question lingered for bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, another hormone disruptor.
In recent years, controversial reports have questioned whether established safe limits for BPA and DEHP may be too high. So researchers monitored urine levels of BPA and DEHP in 20 participants first on their regular diet, which included canned and packaged goods, and then on a diet of fresh food not canned or packaged in plastic.
On the BPA-free diet, urine levels of BPA and DEHP dropped by an average of over 60% and 50%, respectively. The team concluded that a substantial proportion, although not all, of the body level of BPA and DEHP comes from food packaging and that food producers could reduce body levels substantially with BPA- and DEHP-free cans and plastic packaging.
Released March 30, 2011, this study will not be published until a future issue of Environmental Health Perspectives but is available now at http://bit.ly/hBUlDQ without fee.
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Toxic Sales Receipts?
Sales receipts contain up to 1,000 times the amount of BPA found in the epoxy lining of some food cans, a previous source of controversy.
Just one grocery receipt contained 41 mg, which exceeds the EPA’s maximum ingestion limit for a 155-pound male. The chemical residue on receipts sinks into the skin to the point that it may not wash off; whether it actually transfers to the blood vessels deep in the skin is not known.
BPA was found on 40 percent of the receipts collected from supermarkets, automated teller machines, gas stations and chain stores by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), according to the group’s release to the media on July 27. Prompting this EWG survey, scientists had reported July 11, 2010 that the thermal paper used in sales receipts is a major source of BPA although their study will not be published until a future issue of the journal, Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry. Meanwhile, this study is available online at the journal site at http://bit.ly/abynos.
