In an article published on July 16, 2020, Environmental Health News (EHN) reported on the release of a new study led by Jerrold Heindel and published in the peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology that analyzes and interprets the data generated by eight of the 14 academic studies performed within the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on bisphenol A (BPA; CAS 80-05-7) Toxicity (CLARITY-BPA). The project investigated the effects of BPA exposure using sets of standardized rats exposed under controlled conditions and observed for up to two years. The goal of the new analysis was to “coalesce the findings and assess patterns of BPA exposures across the various end organs examined in the same animal cohorts and, frequently, in the same animals.”
“We combined everyone’s data to see what the picture showed,” said Cheryl Rosenfeld, co-author of the new study from the University of Missouri, US. “It’s correlation, not causation. But, ultimately, we were able to show that low doses of BPA don’t just target one system, they go after multiple systems.” Overall, the publication was able to link BPA exposure to impacts on the brain, prostate, urethra, mammary gland, uterus, ovary, spleen, heart, and body fat. EHN reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in an emailed response that they “along with other global food safety authorities, have extensively evaluated the totality of available evidence on the safety of BPA. The weight of the evidence shows that BPA is safe for its authorized uses in food packaging.”
However, the co-authors are arguing the evidence provided in this new publication should motivate the FDA to re-consider the issue more carefully. Pat Hun, a geneticist at Washington State University in the US commented “it’s easy for a regulator to dismiss a study or handful of studies. But when you have this series of studies of the same animals and see correlations across the studies, that gives you much more confidence. This strengthens the conclusion that these low dose effects are real, and can’t be dismissed as spurious.”
On July 16, 2020, EHN together with Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Green Science held a webinar discussing the lessons learned from CLARITY-BPA and the new study. It featured presentations from Laura Vandenberg from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Pat Hunt from Washington State University. On July 21, 2020, five co-authors of the study will also present and discuss the findings as part of a webinar hosted by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CEH). Presentations will provide an overview of the CLARITY-BPA program, discuss results of academic studies focused on BPA effects in the prostate and mammary gland, introduce a newly developed bioinformatics program for data integration across studies, and conclude by presenting the key findings from the latest integrative publication and reflecting on “how the results should be interpreted by regulatory agencies.” Registration is free and available on the event’s page.
Read More
Lynne Peeples (July 16, 2020). “More bad news for BPA: Novel analysis adds to evidence of chemical’s health effects.” Environmental Health News
CHE (July 16, 2020). “Data integration, analysis, and interpretation of eight academic CLARITY-BPA studies.”
EHN (July 16, 2020). “Lessons from the CLARITY BPA Program.”
Reference
Heindel, J et al. (July 16, 2020). “Data integration, analysis, and interpretation of eight academic CLARITY-BPA studies.” Reproductive Toxicology
