Bisphenol SWIKIMEDIA, ROLAND1952Bisphenol A (BPA), a plastics ingredient, is generally recognized as an endocrine disruptor, and concerns over its potential impact on human health have prompted manufacturers to eliminate it from some consumer products. A few nations have even implemented partial bans on how the chemical can be used, and last year, France went to far as to ban BPA from food packaging altogether. Yet “BPA-free” does not necessarily mean free of all bisphenols—and as a pair of recent studies show, substitutes for BPA affect cells and animals in much the same ways.
It’s hard to get a handle on all the chemicals present in plastic products, no less so in items labeled BPA-free. The presumption is that at least some BPA-free items contain a BPA analog—such as bisphenol S or F (BPS, BPF)—as a replacement, and a 2012 study including more than 300 volunteers found BPS in 81 percent of urine samples.
But compared to BPA, there have been far fewer studies on related bisphenols, prompting a number of groups to compare the cellular and physiological effects of these chemicals. Most recently, Pascal Coumailleau of INSERM’s Research Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health and the University of Rennes in France and colleagues measured the effects of four bisphenols on the brains of zebrafish.
Exposing the animals to ...
