STEPHEN LONG: A new study from the United States has raised fresh concerns about the use of the chemical BPA in food packaging. Concerns have long been held about the health effects of using BPA in baby food jars and baby bottles.
The latest scientific report suggests that exposure in utero, via the mother's diet, could be even worse.
Rachel Carbonell.
RACHEL CARBONELL: Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a plasticiser commonly used in tinned foods and other food packaging such as glass jars, baby bottles and water bottles.
BPA is an endocrine disruptor and although the science on the health effects of BPA in foods isn't conclusive some studies have linked it to a range of illnesses, including cancer, diabetes and infertility.
Now a US study has raised new concerns about BPA in food, particularly its effects in utero. The study fed pregnant mice small amounts of BPA and tested the navigational abilities of male offspring when they became sexually mature, at a time when male mice typically experience a developmental burst in this area.
Associate professor Cheryl Rosenfeld at the University of Missouri in Columbia is the lead author of the report. She says researchers used a maze and the difference between the performance of mice exposed to BPA versus those who weren't was significant.
CHERYL ROSENFELD: The males that were exposed to BPA performed at a worse rate than those that were not exposed to BPA and they had a severe delayed ability to find the exit holes that led to their home cage.
Even by the end of the seven day trial period, the BPA exposed males tended not to pick up on what the most efficient search strategy should be. Instead they almost kind of go around and around the rat maze or they just wander aimlessly where they seem not to be able to find where the correct hole was.
RACHEL CARBONELL: She says the BPA exposed mice were also more anxious.
CHERYL ROSENFELD: We looked at exploratory behaviour too in these males because it's been shown that these males and also in boys versus girls, males tend to have higher exploratory behaviour. Those that were exposed to BPA exhibited decreased exploratory behaviour or what we also would term anxiety-like behaviours.
RACHEL CARBONELL: The researchers on the study hypothesise that these results could be due to interference in testosterone production but associate professor Rosenfeld says it could be much more than that.
CHERYL ROSENFELD: The other potential way that BPA might be inducing these effects is through, you know, by acting on the region of the brain that controls this behaviour and that's the hippocampus. And in animals and humans there's a lot of structural conservation in this area of the brain.
RACHEL CARBONELL: BPA exposed male mice were also less sexually attractive to female mice.
Associate professor Rosenfeld says the study indicates the ways in which humans now need to be tested and is further evidence that BPA in food packaging should be phased out.
Some countries have banned the use of BPA in baby bottles, and some companies have taken the initiative to phase BPA out of their products, particularly baby products.
But associate professor Rosenfeld says her study shows the focus needs to be on before birth too.
CHERYL ROSENFELD: What I would also say is I think a lot more education of consumers. I mean it's quite sad now because we really cannot regulate our exposure to BPA because we don't even know if we've been exposed to it. I mean that's I suppose the, I mean to me I think the worst offence ever because you know when we buy our products we are not told whether they contain BPA or not.
RACHEL CARBONELL: The consumer group Choice did its own tests on canned foods in Australia last year and found that 33 out of 41 products tested contained BPA.
Spokesman Christopher Zinn says the latest study from the US only adds weight to Choice's call for the precautionary principle to be applied and BPA taken out of food packaging in Australia.
CHRISTOPHER ZINN: I mean this just adds more weight on that side of the ledger that we have to look at this particular product very carefully. There are other substitutes which are used in terms of the lining of food cans. In other countries it's been changed willingly, in many places indeed.
So really we would think that the time of BPA, the question mark is growing larger and larger over it and this will just add to many people seeking out products which have the simple label BPA free.
RACHEL CARBONELL: Food Standards Australia New Zealand is so far refusing that call. It says the overwhelming weight of scientific opinion points to there being no human health concerns at the levels people are exposed to.
However, in a statement Food Standards Australia New Zealand said it's looking carefully at this study and continues to look at all scientific studies on this chemical as they are released.
STEPHEN LONG: Rachel Carbonell reporting.
The full story...
New concerns over chemical in food packaging
Rachel Carbonell reported this story on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 18:23:00
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