There has been a long debate on whether bisphenol A, an organic compound used in many food and drink packaging applications, is dangerous for the human body.

 

There are many environmentalist groups saying bisphenol A can hurt children and animals. Consumer safety groups say the chemical, which is a synthetic hormone similar to estrogen, can interfere with the way the body absorbs the natural hormone estrogen, which is needed in the development of young bodies.

 

Bisphenol A appears to accelerate puberty and pose cancer risk. Some other reports, focusing on bisphenol’s repercussions on adults, suggest that it may interfere with chemotherapy. Also, bisphenol has been tied to higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and liver failure.

 

What’s worse than this, is the fact that bisphenol appears to remain in the human body far longer than previously believed, according to environmentalist health scientists Richard Stahlhut of the University of Rochester Medical Center in a study published in Environmental Health.

 

Using a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of 1,469 adults, Stahlhut and colleagues concluded that even those who had been fasting for 24 hours still had high BPA levels in their urine.

 

Trying to explain the findings, Stahlhut said the human body get rid of bisphenol relatively rapidly from four to nine hours after intake, but “after nine hours or so, it stops doing what it’s supposed to and the decline goes flat.”

 

Will these findings change Food and Drug Administration’s policy on bisphenol? The agency stated last year that consumers should not worry about bisphenol, as “current levels of exposure to BPA through food packaging do not pose an immediate health risk to the general population, including infants and babies.” It remains to be seen how the debate around the chemical will end.