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03 Oct 08
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Bisphenol-A is a demonstrated endocrine disruptor: it interferes with the hormone systems of animals, including humans. Evidence dates back to the 1930s. In recent tests, when pregnant mice were exposed to very small quantities (two parts per billion), the male offspring had dramatically enlarged and hypersensitized prostates when they reached adulthood. Prenatal exposure of lab rats to extremely low doses of BPA makes them more susceptible to cancer, too. BPA can also inhibit the treatment of human prostate cancer, and babies born to women with elevated phthalate levels are demasculinized. These links have prompted scientists to hypothesize that these and other endocrine-disrupting compounds may be key factors in certain reproductive and developmental disorders, such as early onset of puberty in girls, decline in semen quality, genital abnormalities, and even neurobehavioral problems such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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People opposed to removing BPA from consumer goods argue that mice are not humans, and until we have definitive evidence (whatever that might be) that it harms humans, there is no reason to prohibit its use. Ethically, we cannot test humans by exposing them to BPA, and because the chemical is ubiquitous, we cannot perform a credible case-controlled study by separating people who are exposed to it from those who are not.
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We need a similar standard for the tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals like BPA that have entered our world without proper testing. First, the federal government should have the National Academy of Sciences, a presidential panel or a similarly august group convene scientists and charge them with reaching a consensus about how much evidence is enough to declare, “Yes, the X group of chemicals is dangerous.” Once that is done, a screening process must be devised and the many chemicals out there in that class should undergo the test. The EPA could perform the screening.
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