| BPA in Food Packaging Study | |
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For three days, they provided fresh food—not canned or packaged in plastic—to each family. They avoided canned foods and drinks and meals prepared outside the home. The effect was significant. While the families were eating fresh food, their BPA levels dropped an average of 60 percent. The takeaway: you can reduce your BPA exposure by cooking fresh foods at home, avoiding canned foods, choosing glass and stainless steel food and beverage containers, and not microwaving in plastic.
Study Abstract BACKGROUND: Bisphenol A (BPA) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) are high-production-volume chemicals used in plastics and resins for food packaging. They have been associated with endocrine disruption in animals and in some human studies. Human exposure sources have been estimated, but the relative contribution of dietary exposure to total intake has not been studied empirically. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the contribution of food packaging to exposure, we measured urinary BPA and phthalate metabolites before, during and after a “fresh foods” dietary intervention. METHODS: We selected 20 participants in five families based on self-reported use of canned and packaged foods. Participants ate their usual diet, followed by three days of “fresh foods” that were not canned or packaged in plastic, and then returned to their usual diet. We collected evening urine samples over eight days in January 2010 and composited them into pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention samples. We used mixed effects models for repeated measures and Wilcoxon signed rank tests to assess change in urinary levels across time. RESULTS: Urine levels of BPA and DEHP metabolites decreased significantly during the fresh foods intervention (e.g., BPA geometric mean 3.7 ng/mL pre-intervention and 1.2 ng/mL during intervention; MEHHP geometric mean 57 ng/mL vs 25 ng/mL). The intervention reduced geometric mean concentrations of BPA by 66% and DEHP metabolites by 53-56%. Maxima were reduced by 76% for BPA and 93-96% for DEHP metabolites. CONCLUSIONS: BPA and DEHP exposures were substantially reduced when participants’ diets were restricted to food with limited packaging. |
What happens when you try to get BPA out of your diet? The Breast Cancer Fund and