EPA to Scrutinize Environmental Impact of Bisphenol A

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/e77fdd4f5afd88a3852576b3005a604f/78110048d7f696d1852576f50054241a!OpenDocument

EPA to Scrutinize Environmental Impact of Bisphenol A

Release date: 03/29/2010

Contact Information: Dale Kemery [e-mail] 202-564-7839 202-564-4355

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2010

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a number of actions to address the potential effects of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer and industrial products. The BPA action plan released today focuses on the environmental impacts of BPA and will look to add BPA to EPA’s list of chemicals of concern and require testing related to environmental effects. These actions are part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s comprehensive effort to strengthen the agency’s chemical management program and assure the safety of chemicals.

In January 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had some concerns about the potential human health impacts of BPA and it would study the potential effects and ways to reduce exposure to BPA in food packaging.

“We share FDA’s concern about the potential health impacts from BPA,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. “Both EPA and FDA, and many other agencies are moving forward to fully assess the environmental and health impacts to ensure that the full range of BPA’s possible impacts are examined.”

Food packaging represents the most obvious source of BPA exposure to people and is regulated by FDA. Unlike FDA, EPA has authority over the potential environmental impacts of BPA. Releases of BPA to the environment exceed 1 million pounds per year. BPA has caused reproductive and developmental effects in animal studies and may also affect the endocrine system. The EPA action plan on the environmental impacts of BPA includes:

· Adding BPA to the chemical concern list on the basis of potential environmental effects.
· Requiring information on concentrations of BPA in surface water, ground water, and drinking water to determine if BPA may be present at levels of potential concern.
· Requiring manufacturers to provide test data to assist the agency in evaluating its possible impacts, including long-term effects on growth, reproduction, and development in aquatic organisms and wildlife.
· Using EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) program to look for ways to reduce unnecessary exposures, including assessing substitutes, while additional studies continue.
· And, continuing to evaluate the potential disproportionate impact on children and other sub-populations through exposure from non-food packaging uses.

EPA is working closely with FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on research to better assess and evaluate the potential health consequences of BPA exposures, including health concerns from non-food packaging exposures that fall outside of the FDA’s reach but within EPA’s regulatory authority. Based on what this new research shows, EPA will consider possible regulatory actions to address health impacts from these other exposures.

In December, EPA announced that it will, for the first time, use its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to list chemicals that may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment. The decision to list chemicals signals EPA’s concern about the risks that the listed chemicals may pose and the agency’s intention to address those risks. These actions are part of the agency’s efforts to strengthen EPA’s chemical management program, utilizing current authorities to the fullest extent possible, while continuing to encourage legislative reform of TSCA, which has not been updated since 1976 and is in need of reform.

More information on EPA’s BPA action plan: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/actionplans/bpa.html

[Gman2]

1. It's about fucking time, that is what is killing me.

[kestrel91316]

2. IMHO ALL endocrine disrupters need to be banned.

I read Theo Colborn's book OUR STOLEN FUTURE a while ago and it made a plastic-hater out of me.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Is this mainly the plastic bottle issue ?

I recall posts from a good while back on this subject.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Unfortunately, no

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm197739.htm

...

BPA is an industrial chemical used to make a hard, clear plastic known as polycarbonate, which has been used in many consumer products, including reusable water bottles and baby bottles. BPA is also found in epoxy resins, which act as a protective lining on the inside of metal-based food and beverage cans. These uses of BPA are subject to premarket approval by FDA as indirect food additives or food contact substances. The original approvals were issued under FDA’s food additive regulations and date from the 1960s.

...

http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/citationList.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.0800376

...

Nonfood exposures have been described. Yamamoto et al. (2000), for example, found substantial migration of BPA from PVC hoses into room temperature water. BPA migration produced substantial BPA levels within 24 hr (median 329 ng/mL). Because PVC pipe is approved for use in residential water supply lines in many cities, BPA exposure from this source (by ingestion or inhalation) deserves investigation. A sizable fraction of this BPA would be chlorinated, however (Yamamoto and Yasuhara 2002). Chlorinated BPA species were not measured in NHANES 2003–2004 (CDC 2007a) or in the children’s study by Wilson et al. (Wilson N, personal communication).

...

(from 2006)
http://ehsehplp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.114-a404b

...

Among the many uses of bisphenol A (BPA) is the manufacture of resin-based dental composites and sealants. Recently a team of researchers from the CDC sank their teeth into questions about whether BPA monomer leaching from sealants could be harmful to people. The results of their human study, presented in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, suggest that although leaching does occur, sealants are still a safe means of preventing dental cavities.

...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12881134

...

Bisphenol A (BPA) is used as an additive in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products, including stretch films used for food packaging. The BPA contents were investigated of several brands of stretch film bought locally but marketed internationally or throughout Spain and which were presumably produced at different manufacturing plants. Their major components were identified by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry) and horizontal attenuated total reflectance, and the migration of BPA from these materials into the standard European Union food simulants was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using both fluorescence (FL) and ultraviolet (UV) detection, the identity of the analyte being confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The two HPLC detection methods had different detection limits (30 microg x l(-1) for UV, 3 microg x l(-1) for FL), but afforded virtually identical BPA determinations for the samples tested. BPA contents ranging from 40 to 100 mg x kg(-1) were found in three of the five PVC-based films analysed, and a content of 500 mg x kg(-1) was found in a fourth; for these determinations, extraction into acetonitrile was used. In standard tests of migration into water, 3% acetic acid and olive oil over 10 days at 40 degrees C, migration from a given film was in all cases greatest into olive oil. Migration from the films with non-zero BPA contents ranged from 3 to 31 microg x dm(-2), values higher than those reported for many other food-contact materials, but lower than the European Union specific migration limit for BPA. PVC stretch film nevertheless may make a significant contribution to contamination of foodstuffs by BPA, and should be taken into account in estimating BPA intake or exposure to this substance.

...