Remember the Numbers "7" and "3"

Trust me, it's not often I'm truly appalled. In reality, I'm rarely surprised that political bodies don't protect us. And I have no illusions about how easily lobbyists with money can alter the search for truth.

But the facts I just learned about plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) gave me a genuine shock...

The news first came to my attention when Carli, a member of our editorial staff, gave me an article last week from the local newspaper, the Baltimore Sun. I flippantly glanced at it because I recalled hearing a report that said BPA was safe.

But over the weekend, I read a bit more about this nasty-sounding stuff and was horrified.

The bad news: 90%-95% of us have BPA in our bodies and our urine. And the evidence shows this stuff is dangerous at best and deadly at worst.

The good news: You can do something about it.

BPA's full name is 4,4-dihydroxy-2,2-diphenylpropane. It's been used since the 1950s to make polycarbonate, a hard plastic used in a vast array of products including CDs and baby bottles. It is even used in most canned foods and beverages. If you use these things (and who doesn't), you probably have the stuff inside your body.

The original safety studies from the 1970s simply looked at high doses and concluded that weight loss was the only side effect...

But it actually only takes low doses of BPA to alter many hormones in the body. BPA creates even more havoc in young babies. If not for a 1998 lab mishap, we might have believed the old studies.

Luckily, scientists noticed some lab mice had suddenly started showing genetic changes – chromosome errors – after their cages and water bottles were cleaned with a harsh detergent. The researchers discovered the cleaner was not at fault, but the plastics in the cages and bottles were. After cleaning (and even heating) the water bottles, the BPA started to leak (the technical term is "leach") to the surface of the plastics and into the water. The mice were exposed and... voila... genetic changes.

The real test came when the plastic was removed... and the changes reversed.

One of the most harmful traits of BPA is its attraction to estrogen receptors. (Sadly, research pointed to the effect on estrogen as early as the 1930s.)

From what I've read, BPA can increase the risk of:

One BPA researcher, Frederick Vom Saal, points out most studies of BPA show harmful effects. Of the 218 studies on BPA, 189 report harm. This is a rate of 87%. The government's own National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded several studies that showed harm.

At this point in my reading I was fuming, but when I got to a recent article and editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association I became irate... deeply concerned for my health. You should be, too.

This article confirmed the earlier urine study and found 90% of people had BPA in their bodies. And shockingly, people with higher concentrations of BPA also had 2-3 times the risk of disease... diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Of course, the almighty FDA states this on its website (as of 9/18/08):

Based on our ongoing review, we believe there is a large body of evidence that indicates that FDA-regulated products containing BPA currently on the market are safe and that exposure levels to BPA from food contact materials, including for infants and children, are below those that may cause health effects.

Hmmm... What is the FDA reading?

Although the government funded most of the studies (204) cited by Vom Saal, chemical corporations did fund 14 of them. Not surprisingly (but disappointingly), all 14 of those studies showed no harm. For example, a Society of the Plastics Industry study from 2002 found that BPA did not harm rats.

Another 15 studies used a type of rat that is basically immune to hormones like estrogen. Since the problems with BPA are associated with hormones, it's not surprising that no harm was shown in those studies. We can throw those results out. This means 98% of the valid studies showed harm.

So how do we protect ourselves? It's not easy to tell what products have BPA. But one easy place to look is on your plastic bottles and containers. Check the bottom for the stamped number "3" or "7." Those have the BPA. Even plastics with just "PC" (polycarbonate) stamped on the bottom have the stuff.

Here's what I'm going to do!

I look for simple, cheap, and safe things to improve the long-term quality of my life. Avoiding BPA is one of them.

Here's to our health,

David Eifrig Jr., M.D., M.B.A.