http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007...0304News009.asp
Professor fights against plastic
Vom Saal says obesity linked to chemical.
By JACOB LUECKE of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, March 4, 2007
Plastic companies use bisphenol-A to make a lot of things - food containers, water bottles and even baby bottles. But there’s only one thing Fredrick vom Saal would like the industry to do with it: Take it off the market.
Vom Saal, a biology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has studied bisphenol-A for more than a decade. The chemical is essentially a female sex hormone similar to estrogen. Plastic companies have long used it to make rigid, clear containers, many of which are used for food.
"This is one of the highest-volume produced chemicals in the world. It’s in everybody’s bodies, and it’s a very potent sex hormone," he said. "It’s just nuts that it’s being used the way it is."
Vom Saal’s research, which includes testing the chemical on lab mice, has shown a variety of ill effects. For example, embryonic and infant mice exposed to small amounts bisphenol-A tend to become obese as adults. He surmises the same chemical could be behind the current rise in human obesity.
"When is the obesity epidemic occurring? Over the last couple decades," he said. "Over the last couple of decades you’ve have over a fourfold increase in bisphenol-A production and use. If you look at the increase in obesity and increase in bisphenol-A use, they absolutely line up."
Although the research started in Columbia, vom Saal said there have been hundreds of studies worldwide documenting the effects of bisphenol-A. He said seven studies have backed up the claim about the chemical causing obesity in rats.
"We published it, and it’s been confirmed over and over and over again," said vom Saal.
In male mice, the chemical can also caused increased prostate size, decreased sperm production and increased aggression, according to vom Saal’s research.
The chemical industry, however, has shrugged off the studies.
"Government and scientific bodies around the world have reviewed the scientific evidence regarding safety of bisphenol-A, and reviewed it very carefully," said Steve Hentges, executive director of the Polycar-bonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group.
"In every case," Hentges said, "they have come to the conclusion that bisphenol-A is not a risk to human health in particular from the very low levels of exposure that people might receive from use of consumer products."
Hentges contends individual studies showing harm from bisphenol-A are mitigated by other research.
"When you look at all the evidence together in what might be called a weight-of-evidence evaluation, you come away not particularly concerned," he said. "If you, on the other hand, look at single studies, you can get yourself very confused and come to conclusions that are quite inconsistent with the full scientific database."
Vom Saal contends the industry’s position is off base, and he’s fighting to get the government and others to recognize the hazards. It’s been slow going, he said, because government panels are regularly stacked with people from the plastics industry.
He believes that to convince the government to recognize the threat of bisphenol-A it will take more than studies on mice. Some of his new research focuses on how the chemical affects people.
"Until we show these effects on people, which is going to take another four to five years, it’s going to be almost impossible to get regulatory agencies to do anything," he said.
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Reach Jacob Luecke at (573) 815-1713 or jluecke~tribmail.com.
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