BPA's Effects May Start In the Womb, Study Says

The food industry is fighting hard to defend the use of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in food packages and containers, but research continues to pile up suggesting the chemical spreads easily to humans and causes health concerns.

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia says their finds show that exposure to BPA in the womb is associated with behavior and emotional problems in young girls.

It's everywhere

Though BPA is most closely associated with food and beverage containers, it is also found in a wide array of consumer goods, including polycarbonate plastics, dental sealants, and some receipts made from thermal paper.

Most people living in industrialized nations are exposed to BPA, which scientists say can interfere with normal development in animals. It's also been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in people. In a 2009 study, HSPH researchers showed that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA.

In this study, published in the online edition of Pediatrics, lead author Joseph Braun, research fellow in environmental health at HSPH, and his colleagues found that gestational BPA exposure was associated with more behavioral problems at age three, especially in girls.

The study

The researchers collected data from 244 mothers and their three-year-old children in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment Study, conducted in the Cincinnati area. Mothers provided three urine samples during pregnancy and at birth that were tested for BPA; their children were tested each year from ages one to three.

When the children were three years old, the mothers completed surveys about their children's behavior.

“None of the children had clinically abnormal behavior, but some children had more behavior problems than others. Thus, we examined the relationship between the mom's and children’s BPA concentrations and the different behaviors,” Braun said.

In urine of 96% of children

BPA was detected in over 85 percent of the urine samples from the mothers and over 96 percent of the children’s urine samples. The researchers found that maternal BPA concentrations were similar between the first sample and birth. The children’s BPA levels decreased from ages one to three, but were higher and more variable than that of their mothers.

After adjusting for possible contributing factors, increasing gestational BPA concentrations were associated with more hyperactive, aggressive, anxious, and depressed behavior and poorer emotional control and inhibition in the girls. This relationship was not seen in the boys.

The study confirms two prior studies showing that exposure to BPA in the womb impacts child behavior, but is the first to show that in utero exposures are more important than exposures during childhood, Braun said. “Gestational, but not childhood BPA exposures, may impact neurobehavioral function, and girls appear to be more sensitive to BPA than boys,” he said.