BPA News

Whether you realize it or not, there’s a good chance that you are being exposed to bisphenol F (BPF). There’s even a fair chance that you are highly exposed. If so, should you be concerned and what should you do about it?

Bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) are chemicals used in the lining of aluminum-canned food and drinks (to prevent spoilage). They were rolled out as a replacement for bisphenol A (BPA), a compound targeted by activists under claims it might statistically be an “endocrine-disrupting chemical.” Exhaustive studies later found overwhelming scientific evidence that was not so.

The People’s Republic of California, regulator of all things dangerous and hazardous, has decreed that the link between coffee and cancer is “not significant.” Consequently, businesses can take down those ominous 10-x-10-inch warning signs they were forced to post under Prop 65.

With controversy over its safety raging for more than a decade, you’ve almost certainly heard about bisphenol A (BPA). It’s primarily used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear and highly shatter-resistant material. You’ll find it in an array of products ranging from your kid’s sports safety equipment to their safety glasses in science class, to the cellphone cases and electronics that seem to never leave their hands.  

With controversy over its safety raging for more than a decade, you’ve almost certainly heard about bisphenol A. In response to the controversy, legislative bans have been proposed over the years in Congress, state legislatures and even a few local counties. The concern stems from an allegation from some scientists who asserted that BPA could be  “hormone disrupting” at very low levels of exposure.

If I told you that the final report on bisphenol A (BPA) has been issued, would you believe me?  After nearly two decades of studies from various groups attempting to prove that BPA either causes—or does not cause—problems in humans, the results released last week once again confirm that BPA is safe in the minute levels found in plastic consumer products.

The long-awaited final core study on Bisphenol A (BPA), a compound used to produce strong plastic products and epoxy resins, has been released.  On September 28, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) announced that the CLARITY-BPA Core Study and Primary Data from the CLARITY-BPA Grantee Studies were available.  The core study confirms what has been known for years:  BPA is safe. 

More research has been released by the United States National Toxicology Program (NTP) as part of a landmark study on the safety of bisphenol A (BPA). The Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity (CLARITY-BPA) program is studying a range of potential health effects from exposure to the chemical. It was initiated by NTP, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide data for regulatory decisions. The draft CLARITY-BPA core study research report was reviewed by an external expert panel in April 2018 and the final version was released last week along with data from academic studies. A report integrating findings from the core study and grantee studies is expected in fall 2019… The American Chemistry Council (ACC) said the results support the safety of BPA. “The final report on the CLARITY Core Study strongly supports recent statements from the U.S. FDA that BPA is safe at the very low levels to which people are typically exposed.

The scope and magnitude of this study are unprecedented for BPA, and the results clearly show that BPA has very little potential to cause health effects, even when people are exposed to it throughout their lives,” said Steven G. Hentges, Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the ACC. CLARITY-BPA has two components: A “core” guideline-compliant chronic study conducted at NCTR according to FDA Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations and studies of various endpoints, by NIEHS-funded researchers at academic institutions using animals born to the same exposed pregnant rats as the core GLP study.

It’s been a long road for the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) used in certain plastics. Scientists from all quarters—academia, the FDA and the plastics industry—have spent more than two decades studying BPA, and just when you think the definitive word on that chemical found in polycarbonate and epoxy resins has been delivered . . . it hasn’t. Remember what I said a couple of weeks ago in my blog, “The science is never settled?” 

Government scientists have presented new evidence that the plastic additive BPA isn’t a health threat. Low doses of the chemical given to hundreds of rats, “did not elicit clear, biologically plausible adverse effects,” said K. Barry Delclos, a research pharmacologist at the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research.