BPA linked to heart disease and diabetes, study says

Researchers led by Iain A. Lang of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England, analyzed urine levels of BPA among 1,455 American adults, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004. Higher levels of BPA in urine were associated with the form of chest pain called angina, coronary heart disease, heart attacks, and type 2 diabetes.

When the researchers divided the study participants into four groups based on BPA levels, people in the quartile with the highest BPA amounts had almost three times the risk of having cardiovascular disease compared with people in the lowest quartile. For type 2 diabetes, the highest quartile had almost two and a half times the risk compared with those in the lowest quartile.

High BPA levels were also correlated with abnormal levels of three liver enzymes, which can be a sign of liver damage. Some other common conditions, such as cancer, asthma, and arthritis, did not appear to be associated with BPA.

"This is a striking finding but not that surprising," Dr. David Ozonoff, professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health, said in an interview. He was not involved in the study. "This is what we would have expected to see based on animal work."

Because the study looked only at a snapshot -- random urine samples -- it cannot make a direct cause-and-effect connection between BPA and the illnesses it turned up. Longer studies following people to see what happens to their health after exposure to BPA need to be done to answer those questions, the authors write.

But that doesn't mean the FDA should wait before it acts, Ozonoff said, criticizing the agency's methods for determining the safety of synthetic compounds such as BPA, which is an estrogen mimic. While the FDA tests high levels of the chemicals, hormone-like substances can exert effects in minuscule amounts.

"This is really a red flag," he said. "A change in policy should have come before now. If you want to hit them on the head, this is a good two-by-four to do it with."

In an editorial appearing with the JAMA paper, Frederick S. vom Saal and John Peterson Myers of of the University of Missouri also say the FDA's testing guidelines for environmental chemicals are outdated and urge the agency to act.

"The study by Lang et al., while preliminary with regard to these diseases in humans, should spur US regulatory agencies to follow the recent action taken by Canadian regulatory agencies, which have declared BPA a 'toxic chemical' requiring aggressive action to limit human and environmental exposures," they write.