September 15, 2008

scientists comment on research into bisphenol A and heart disease

Experts comment on research that reveals an association between Bisphenol A, a compound used in a wide range of plastic products, and both heart disease and diabetes.

Prof Richard Sharpe, MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit, University of Edinburgh, said:

“Cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are ‘Western’ diseases that are becoming ever more common. We have all presumed that this is due to what and how much we eat, and under-exercising, but this study raises a new possibility by showing an association with exposure to bisphenol A. As the authors stress, this study does not show that bisphenol A causes or contributes to these diseases, as such information would require more detailed studies that followed individuals over time (what is called a ‘longitudinal’ study).

“It is all too common today for the media to jump to the obvious scary conclusion that a common environmental chemical (bisphenol A) causes increasingly common, and important, human diseases. However, as the authors acknowledge to an extent, there may be an altogether more commonsense (although still scary) explanation for the observations in this study. That is, that if you drink lots of high sugar canned drinks you will over time increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (I think we already suspect this), and incidentally you will be exposed to more bisphenol A (from the can lining). The fact that the younger age groups in this study had the highest bisphenol A exposures would certainly fit with this. Our present understanding, and this study, do not allow us to choose between these two explanations, but in the interests of health protection it is obviously a priority that we design studies to provide this information before we label bisphenol A as the prime suspect and possibly end up ‘putting the wrong person in jail’.”

Click here here to see details of the SMC briefing on this piece of research.

Prof David Coggon, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Southampton, said:

“These are preliminary but potentially important findings. As the researchers indicate, there is now a need to establish whether the association of BPA with heart disease and diabetes can be independently replicated, and if so, whether BPA is a cause of the disorders or is linked to them in some other way. If low-level BPA were confirmed to cause disease, there would be a need to review controls on sources of exposure to the chemical.”