Recent US research says that people who drink from bottles made of polycarbonate plastic have a considerably higher level of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their bodies compared to when they do not. Polycarbonate plastic is the one used to make hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles.
The study was carried out by senior investigator Karin B Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) along with the help of colleagues. The research was published online in the May 12 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
The finding confirms polycarbonate plastic bottles are a vital source of the BPA that finds its way into the human body. In animals, BPA interferes with reproductive development. It has also been associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans, among other things.
A two-third increase of in the level of BPA in the urine was noticed in participants who drank from polycarbonate bottles for a week says Michael and his colleagues.
Michael says: “We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds.”
“If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher,” she added, explaining that is worrying because “infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA’s endocrine-disrupting potential”.
77 Harvard College students were recruited by Michel and his colleagues in April 2008 for the study. The participants went through a “wash out phase” for the first week. To purge their bodies of any lingering BPA, they drank cold drinks only from stainless steel bottles. The next week they could drink only out of polycarbonate bottles which were also used for storing their drinks.
Urine samples were collected at the end of both weeks to compare BPA levels. Their urine contained 69 per cent more BPA at the end of the polycarbonate week than at the end of the wash out week.
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