Plastics Chemical Poses Sexual Health Risks to Exposed Workers

Researchers spent years studying the effects of bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure on factory workers in China, and the news isn't good. The key findings of the study [1], which was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, are more or less summed up in these two passages:

• "After adjustment for potential confounders including age, education, marital status, current smoking status, a history of chronic diseases and
  exposure to other chemicals, and employment history, the BPA-exposed workers had a significantly higher risk of sexual dysfunction."
• "When employment in a BPA-exposed factory lasted 1 year or less, BPA-exposed workers already experienced a significantly higher frequency of reduced sexual function compared with unexposed workers during the same period of employment."

For more on the study, see this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [2].

BPA is an ingredient in hard, polycarbonate plastics. No. 7 plastics [3], like those used for reusable water bottles, are usually polycarbonate. Bisphenol-A is also an ingredient in certain resins used to line food cans.

Scads of studies have linked bisphenol-A exposure to heart disease, developmental disorders, and other health problems. But most of those studies used rodents to study the effects of BPA. The study of the Chinese workers is the first major study to look at human exposure.

BPA is ubiquitous [4], and as a result the exposure pathways are numerous. Environmental and occupational exposure in addition to food container and consumer product exposure put at least four federal regulatory agencies on the hook: the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission, respectively.

The study has this to say:

[T]he question of the adverse effect of exposure to BPA on human health has raised substantial concern among the public because of widespread presence of BPA in the environment and in consumer products such as baby bottles and food and water containers. Therefore, studies of the effect of BPA on humans are critically needed to help establish prevention strategies and regulatory policies.

The FDA has promised [5] to update its opinion on BPA safety by the end of the month. Although we anxiously await that announcement, food and drink containers aren't the only means of BPA exposure. The Obama administration should begin, if it hasn't already, to contemplate a broader, inter-agency strategy to monitor and take action on BPA exposure.