More on BPA’s effects on us: Heart disease
As if erectile dysfunction wasn’t bad enough, now BPA is implicated in heart disease. Rachel Ehrenberg in Science News:
A previously reported link between exposure to the plastics chemical bisphenol A and heart disease stands, reports a new study published online January 12 in PLoS ONE.
Added to previous work, the finding provides a third prong of evidence implicating the chemical in cardiovascular and metabolic problems, notes Richard Stahlhut of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester in New York. “It’s becoming a coherent picture that really does fit together,” says Stahlhut, who was not involved in the research. “If these all connect, we really do have a problem.”
Researchers analyzed data from the 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NHANES uses physical examinations, clinical and lab tests, and personal interviews to get a snapshot of the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population. The new analysis of 2005–2006 data reveals an association between concentrations of bisphenol A in urine and risk of cardiovascular disease, a link also detected in the 2003–2004 NHANES data.
“We now have two completely separate samples with completely different people,” says study coauthor David Melzer, an epidemiologist at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England. The new work shows that the previous finding of a link “wasn’t a blip,” Melzer says. “It does need to be investigated.”
Human exposure to bisphenol A is widespread. The chemical is a building block of polycarbonate plastics and is common in the epoxy linings of canned food. It also mimics estrogen. Numerous studies have found that BPA interferes with development and function in a range of tissues.
The NHANES link to cardiovascular disease is a third line of evidence implicating the chemical in …
