Chemical is safe, FDA says, but . . .
The agency gave tips to cut exposure to BPA. A separate report cited possible health risks.
WASHINGTON - With scientists at odds about the risks of a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, metal cans, and other food packaging, the government yesterday gave consumers some tips on how to reduce their exposure to BPA even as it called the substance safe.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee met as a major study linked bisphenol A to possible risks of heart disease and diabetes. The scientific debate could drag on for years.
"Right now, our tentative conclusion is that it's safe, so we're not recommending any change in habits," said Laura Tarantino, head of the FDA's office of food-additive safety. But, she added, "there are a number of things people can do to lower their exposure."
For example, consumers can avoid plastic containers imprinted with the recycling number '7,' as many of those contain BPA. Or, Tarantino said, they can avoid warming food in such containers, as heat helps to release the chemical.
More than 90 percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their bodies, but the FDA says the levels of exposure are too low to pose a health risk, even for infants and children. But other scientists say BPA has been shown to affect the human body even at very low levels.
And yesterday, a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a new concern about BPA. Using a health survey of nearly 1,500 adults, the study found that those exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes.
The study is preliminary, far from proof that the chemical caused the health problems. Two Dartmouth College analysts of medical research said the study raised questions but provided no answers about whether the ubiquitous chemical was harmful.
One of the FDA's outside advisers was skeptical of the JAMA study. "For diabetes, I really don't see it," said Garret FitzGerald of the University of Pennsylvania. As for a link to heart disease, FitzGerald questioned why the JAMA study did not also find high blood pressure in the people exposed to higher amounts of BPA.
FDA officials said they were not dismissing such findings. "We recognize the need to resolve the concerning questions that have been raised," said Tarantino, acknowledging that more research was needed.
The agency has asked an outside scientific panel for a second opinion on BPA's safety. The FDA has the power to ban or limit use of BPA in food containers and medical devices.
Past animal studies have suggested reproductive and hormone-related problems from BPA. The JAMA study is the largest to examine possible BPA effects in people and the first suggesting a direct link to heart disease, said scientists Frederick vom Saal and John Peterson Myers, both longtime critics of the chemical.
