According to a leading researcher into bisphenol A (BPA), human exposure to the endocrine disruptor is greater than previously thought. This week Professor Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri was given a Heinz Award for his outstanding work in environmental health.
Commenting on the research that led to his Heinz Award, Professor vom Saal said, “This study provides convincing evidence that BPA is dangerous to our health at current levels of human exposure. The new results clearly demonstrate that rodent data on the health effects of BPA are relevant to predictions regarding the health effects of human exposure to BPA. Further evidence of human harm should not be required for regulatory action to reduce human exposure to BPA.”
Ironically, Prof vom Saal’s award is from the family that made its fortune by selling canned goods, with these cans now one of the principal sources of human exposure to BPA.
The paper, published in the latest issue of the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, suggests that human exposure to BPA is much higher than originally thought. Its source, “is likely to be from many still-unknown sources, indicating the need for governmental agencies to require the chemical industry to identify all products that contain BPA”.
Ref Julia A. Taylor, Frederick S. vom Saal, Wade V. Welshons, Bertram Drury, George Rottinghaus, Patricia A. Hunt, Catherine A. VandeVoort: Similarity of Bisphenol A Pharmacokinetics in Rhesus Monkeys and Mice: Relevance for Human Exposure, in NIH journal “Environmental Health Perspectives”; doi: 10.1289/ehp.1002514
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