BPA found in canned foods
An analysis of EWG's tests for BPA contamination in canned food reveals that people who eat canned foods are likely to ingest doses of BPA that are very close to levels now known to harm laboratory animals. EWG assessed human exposures in two ways - estimating single-day exposures using standard government assumptions for consumption and body weight; and estimating chronic exposures for women who routinely eat canned food, via Monte Carlo techniques and government data and assumptions on relative consumption rates for different types of canned foods. Our analyses show:
Single serving exposures. For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals (Figure). The government typically mandates a 1,000- to 3,000-fold margin of safety between human exposures and levels found to harm lab animals, but these servings contained levels of BPA less than 5 times lower than doses that harmed lab animals.
Chronic exposures. Our analyses show that for women who routinely eat canned food, chronic exposure levels throughout pregnancy can exceed safe doses. For example, the BPA dose for one-quarter of all women eating 2 servings of canned food daily would fall within a margin of 10 from levels linked to prostate damage and diabetes in studies of in utero exposures.
Methods and findings from our in-depth analysis of BPA exposures for women and infants are described in detail below.
Single serving exposures to canned foods contaminated with BPA
Our analysis shows that single servings from 20 of the 53 cans with detectable BPA put consumers within an uncomfortable range of the levels that directly harm lab animals. These tests found levels just 1.6 to 10 times lower than the doses that impacted the male reproductive system and caused increased aggressiveness in lab animals (2 ug/kg-day) (Nagel 1998; Kawai 2003). In comparison, regulatory agencies typically require a margin of safety of 1000 to 3000 between human exposures and the effects found in animal studies. Methods of analysis are described below the figure that displays exposure findings for each food type we tested.
While most of the available BPA toxicity studies dose lab animals over longer durations than a single day, short-term or every single day doses such as those estimated below can be significant when they occur in windows of vulnerability during development.
BPA is at unsafe levels in one of every 10 servings of canned foods (11%) and one of every 3 cans of infant formula (33%)
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Single serving exposures. For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals (Figure). The government typically mandates a 1,000- to 3,000-fold margin of safety between human exposures and levels found to harm lab animals, but these servings contained levels of BPA less than 5 times lower than doses that harmed lab animals.
Chronic exposures. Our analyses show that for women who routinely eat canned food, chronic exposure levels throughout pregnancy can exceed safe doses. For example, the BPA dose for one-quarter of all women eating 2 servings of canned food daily would fall within a margin of 10 from levels linked to prostate damage and diabetes in studies of in utero exposures.
Methods and findings from our in-depth analysis of BPA exposures for women and infants are described in detail below.
Single serving exposures to canned foods contaminated with BPA
Our analysis shows that single servings from 20 of the 53 cans with detectable BPA put consumers within an uncomfortable range of the levels that directly harm lab animals. These tests found levels just 1.6 to 10 times lower than the doses that impacted the male reproductive system and caused increased aggressiveness in lab animals (2 ug/kg-day) (Nagel 1998; Kawai 2003). In comparison, regulatory agencies typically require a margin of safety of 1000 to 3000 between human exposures and the effects found in animal studies. Methods of analysis are described below the figure that displays exposure findings for each food type we tested.
While most of the available BPA toxicity studies dose lab animals over longer durations than a single day, short-term or every single day doses such as those estimated below can be significant when they occur in windows of vulnerability during development.
BPA is at unsafe levels in one of every 10 servings of canned foods (11%) and one of every 3 cans of infant formula (33%)
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