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Published online 16 September 2008 |
Nature
| doi:10.1038/news.2008.1110
Updated online: 16 September 2008
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Bisphenol A linked to disease in humans
More studies of the controversial chemical are on the way.
High levels of bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical used in some containers for food and drink — may be associated with an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in humans, a new study has found.
The study, published this week by the Journal of the American Medical Association1, is the first large-scale investigation of the controversial chemical's effect on human disease.
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'At most it is very preliminary'... Sort of like warning about "ICE AHEAD"? The evidence, almost world wide, that obesity and near pandemic organ failure, requires something more than a preliminary caution. We have yet to fully understand the concept of organic synergism and how otherwise inert chemicals interact with regional genomic body chemistry, much less man made industrial chemicals in our food sources.
So if I daily take in 2,000 calories (along with a dose of BPA) from my 4 bottles of soda, it's the BPA that caused my obesity and diabetes?
I think it?s important to clarify that when it comes to food containers, BPA is found in polycarbonate bottles, not all plastic as this article suggests. It seems that many news stories omit the fact that most single-serve plastic bottles people use every day ? such as those for water, soft drinks and juices ? are made with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), designated by the recycling symbol ?1,? which does not contain BPA. PET is safe and recyclable; polycarbonate, on the other hand, is made with BPA and is designated by the symbol ?7?. It is not recyclable. To say that ?some containers for food and drink? are linked to diabetes is confusing because PET plastic water bottles have not been linked to disease in any credible way. The picture that accompanies this story is also misleading because it depicts a pair of PET bottles rather than BPA containers. The picture should be changed or the caption should be clarified that the bottles of water shown in the picture are in fact all PET plastic bottles and are not those that have been linked to diabetes. http://www.factsonpet.com contains information on this subject that may be useful. I would hope that future stories on this topic mention how readers can identify polycarbonate bottles based on the recycling code and would choose images that accurately reflect the news at hand.
It is rather vague to state : "Previous analysis of BPA levels in these urine samples had shown that 92.6% of people over the age of six had detectable levels of BPA in their urine2." What is the lowest detectable level of BPA and what level of BPA in the urine causes a health effect. Without these data, the above statement loses its value.
The comment by J. Waller is pertinent. _If_ people who tend to consume lots of high-sugar beverages are getting them from PET bottles and not polycarbonate, then exposure to BPA and to obesity and diabetes -inducing foods can be de-linked. Clearly, consumer plastic use as well as BPA intake and metabolism ahve to be studied in order to understand this apparent correlation.
A) Not all humans are born equal, so that not all who drink BPA become diabetics, obese or coronary diseased individuals. B) Only subjects with related quantum biophysical semeiotic constitutions may be suffer from diabetes, obesity, CAD (See, for instance:http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080606/full/news.2008.879.html?q=2#last-comment C)As a consequence, physicians all around the world have to learn these new concepts of Medicine, like Diabetic "and" Dyslipidaemic Constitutions with their Inherited Real Risk, including CAD Inherited Real Risk. Without such as congenital Real Risks, present at birth, and bedside recognized with the aid of a simple stethoscope, disorders cannot occur at all (For instance, See www.nature.com Febbraio 17, 2008 http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/02/confusion_after_diabetes_study.html#comments
The comment by S. D. van Hoogstraten is true, but we need to delve farther into the capability of the analytical procedure(s) used. Not only must an analytical procedure report a limit of detection, the procedure should be validated at different labs with statistical data to demonstrate its reproducibility on split samples.
Everyone interested in BPA and its threat to human health should also read another study just published this week on the effect of BPA in a non-human primate brain: http://www.pnas.org/content/105/37/14187.full It's food for thought. I was skeptical of BPA's dangers for a while, thinking it was akin to the thimerosol uproar, but it seems like more evidence it building against the safety of BPA. The question is, what are we going to do with all those Nalgene bottles people are going to toss in the landfill now?
Levels of BPA (or its metabolites) would be expected to increase in subjects that are obtaining more foods and beverages from bottles and cans. Thus, their intake of FRESH fruits and vegetables (highly correlated to protect against risks of diabetes and CV disease) is probably low. Thus, BPA levels in urine might be a good surrogate marker for poor diet rather than the cause of disease. Animal studies that suggest health effects of BPA often involve injection (or direct instillation into nervous system as in article cited above). Direct injection of BPA results in a very different toxic and metabolic profile in comparison to ingestion (the way most of us get the chemical). Oral dosing experiments of BPA at reasonable doses usually show few or no biological effects.