Chemical in plastic baby bottles is dangerous for infants

A chemical used in many plastic consumer products ranging from baby bottles to plastic lining of canned foods to other plastic drinks and food containers, may pose health risks to infants, affecting their development and reproductive systems, a U.S. government report said Tuesday.

The report released by the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, warns that a controversial, estrogen-like chemical in plastic, known as Bisphenol A, or BPA might be harmful to the development of children's brains and reproductive organs.

The report concludes that there was "some concern" that foetuses, babies and children were in danger because experiments on rats found precancerous prostate tumors, urinary system problems and early puberty when the animals were fed or injected with low doses of the chemical, Bisphenol-A, that is used primarily in plastics and epoxy resins.

According to the report, animals in the trial experience effects from BPA at exposure levels similar to those experienced by humans, and so the possibility that BPA may impact human development cannot be dismissed.

"What we've got is a warning, a signal, of some concerns," said Mike Shelby, director of the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, who supervised the report. "We could not dismiss the possibility that similar or related effects might occur in humans."

The federal panel, made up of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reached the conclusion after reviewing about 500 laboratory animal experiments.

BPA, an ingredient of polycarbonate plastic, is one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals in industry today. Its current uses are as a primary monomer in polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. It can enter to the human body through hard plastic beverage containers such as baby bottles, as well as from liners in cans containing food and infant formula.

Although, the chemical industry has said repeatedly that low-level exposure to BPA is safe, but the recent report says even low levels of exposure by infants can be harmful. It can cause changes in their prostate and mammary gland tissue that could ultimately lead to cancer.

"The findings break new scientific ground, for the first time validating the results of tests conducted on animals at very low doses similar to those which people are exposed to," said Anila Jacob, the senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group that had criticized an earlier report which underrated the dangers of BPA. Impressed with the latest report, the working group said that the fresh data corrects the scientific record.

The new report rated the concern as "negligible" for adults, and called for more research into the chemical's potential health effects.

Meanwhile, the plastics industry representatives billed the latest report "inconclusive" and "flawed," contending the federal agency found "no serious or high-level concerns."