A Harvard study released Thursday supports what many public-health specialists have long assumed: Hard plastic drinking bottles containing bisphenol A are leaching notable amounts of the controversial chemical into people’s bodies.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who drank for a week from the clear plastic polycarbonate bottles increased concentrations of bisphenol A — or BPA — in their urine by 69 percent.
The study is the first to definitively show that drinking from BPA bottles increases the levels of the chemical in urine, researchers said.
BPA is used to make reusable, hard plastic bottles more durable and to help prevent corrosion in canned goods such as soup and infant formula.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that products containing BPA are safe and that exposure levels, including those for infants and children, are below those that would affect health. But the FDA’s own scientific advisory board criticized agency officials for relying on industry-funded studies to declare the chemical safe.
Thursday, an official with the American Chemistry Council discounted any suggestion that the Harvard study underscores a health risk.
In an e-mail, Steven G. Hentges said the study shows exposure to bisphenol A from the bottles is “extremely low,” below the mean BPA amounts reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the U.S. population. That, he says, shows exclusive use of polycarbonate bottles does not lead to unusually high levels of bisphenol A in the urine.
