Bisphenol-A, or BPA—a common, human-made chemical that enters most of our bodies everyday—has been linked to heart disease, a new study says.
The study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—which has until now maintained that BPA is safe at low levels—announced Friday that the FDA has some concerns about the impacts of BPA on developing fetuses, infants, and children. The agency is also urging consumers to reduce their exposure to the chemical until further studies are completed.
BPA is commonly used in consumer plastics, particularly polycarbonate plastic items such as many sunglasses, reusable bottles, food packaging, and baby bottles. It also lines the inside of food cans.
In a sampling of U.S. adults, those with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than those with the lowest concentrations of BPA.
The findings almost perfectly dovetail with a 2008 study on the same topic, said study co-author Tamara Galloway, an ecotoxicologist at the U.K.'s University of Exeter.
"If you see it once, that's interesting," Galloway said.
"If you see it twice in a separate population, it's a strong indication that what you're seeing is not just some chance finding."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/100116-bpa-fda-heart-disease-concern-children/
