Chemical in Plastic Related To Heart Disease and Diabetes

Another new study came out yesterday. This one says that a chemical found in many plastics and canned goods may put people at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

The chemical, Bisphenol A (BPA), had previously been suspected of causing developmental problems in fetuses. Pregnant women had been warned to avoid using plastics with BPA.

The lead investigator in this study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association was Dr. David Melzer, of Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, in the UK. 1,455 adults were examined in this study.


The study showed that people with high levels of BPA were more likely to have heart disease, including heart attack, or diabetes. The research showed that high BPA levels increased the risks by 39%.

But hold your horses folks, there are some naysayers like Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology; Reproductive Sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine. He says

"I am really torn here, because I really believe that BPA has some concerns, but this paper does not prove that," "It's sort of classic guilt by association," Taylor said. "The correlations are there. There is more diabetes and more heart disease in people with more BPA, but people who are eating a lot of things out of cans and water bottles are going to have higher BPA in their urine, and they're probably not eating the healthiest diet, so you might expect them to have diabetes and heart disease."

And like most health articles that report studies such as these- here is the "this is fascinating, but we need more studies to conclusively prove this" quote--

Dr. Rick Stahlhut, from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, agreed this study does not provide a causal link between BPA and heart disease and diabetes, but it's the first step toward discovering such a link. "The findings are intriguing, but they have to be validated," Stahlhut said.

UPDATE: Steven Milloy of Junk Science fame makes some good points in this debunking of the BPA study finding fault with the data in the study as well as questioning the motives of the investigators of the study who may have their own agenda.

What do you think? To BPA or not to BPA, that is the question. If you choose not to, this related article provides tips on how to avoid BPA. Feel free to express your opinion in comments.