OT?Bisphenol A most harmful to infants- article

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Bisphenol A most harmful to infants, study says

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

http://tinyurl.com/33jmem

From Friday's Globe and Mail

January 11, 2008 at 3:58 AM EST

A new U.S. study on the plastic compound bisphenol A indicates that

the chemical may be far more dangerous for young children than for

adults.

The finding has been submitted to Health Canada for its current

safety review of BPA, and bolsters the case for limiting bisphenol A

exposure in infants, who lack the capacity that adults have to

detoxify it.

Bisphenol A is used in polycarbonate baby bottles and the epoxy

linings of cans, including those for almost all types of infant

formula. Because BPA can mimic estrogen, many researchers suspect it

is a factor in health trends linked to sex hormone imbalances, such

as prostate and breast cancer.

In the new study, researchers found that neonatal mice exposed to

trace amounts of bisphenol A, either orally or through injection,

ended up with similar amounts of the chemical in their blood because

they do not have high amounts of the liver enzyme that breaks it down

into an inactive form.

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Young rodents don't fully develop the capacity to make the enzyme

until they are weaned, a trait they share with humans. By contrast,

adult rodents fed BPA have been found to rapidly clear it from their

bodies using the enzymes.

Similar experiments are not done on babies for ethical reasons, but

given the similarity of biological processes among mammals, many

scientists consider the results applicable to humans.

The research study is expected to be issued next week by the peer

reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology.

The finding is " extremely scary, " said Dr. Frederick vom Saal, a

professor in the biological sciences department of the University of

Missouri, and a member of the team that conducted the study.

Dr. vom Saal is a leading authority on BPA, and he contended that

formula and polycarbonate baby bottles expose children to worrisome

amounts of the synthetic estrogen. " You are significantly dosing your

baby with bisphenol A every day and every time the baby is consuming

food, " he said.

Health Canada said in a statement to The Globe and Mail yesterday

that " it is too early for us to state whether we have a concern or

not with infant formula or baby bottles which contain BPA. "

But two major formula makers - Nestle Canada and Mead

Nutritionals - dismissed the concerns.

" Health Canada, as well as other international authorities such as

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, have approved the use of BPA

in food packaging, " Nestle Canada said in an e-mail statement.

" The preponderance of valid scientific literature right now upholds

the position that BPA and the levels found in the food chain of

humans is absolutely safe, " said Gail Wood, spokeswoman for

ville, Ind., based Mead . She also discounted the

significance for humans of research on mice.

Based on a preliminary risk assessment in 2006, Health Canada said

that bisphenol A was a chemical for which it had a " predisposition to

conclude toxic. " It is expected to issue a formal evaluation by May.

The study also contradicts a major contention on the safety of

bisphenol A advanced by chemical manufacturers. Many of the nearly

200 studies finding severe health effects from bisphenol A exposure

have been done by injecting young or pregnant rodents with the

chemical.

The American Chemistry Council, an Arlington, Va., trade group for

major BPA manufacturers, has argued that injection study results

aren't applicable to humans because people are thought to have most

of their exposures from oral sources, such as food, subject to rapid

metabolizing by liver enzymes. Delivering BPA by injection bypasses

this detoxification process and may cause health effects that

wouldn't occur by ingesting the chemical, according to the industry's

view.

However, the new research indicates that both oral and injection

approaches are equally valid for experiments during fetal and

neonatal development.

Health Canada said it hasn't yet decided whether to accept or reject

the industry's position on the dosing controversy.

The council did not respond to a request for comment on the new

research.