"Study: Human Exposure to BPA 'Grossly Underestimated'"

"Americans are likely to be exposed at higher levels than previously thought to bisphenol A, a compound that mimics hormones important to human development and is found in more than 90 percent of people in the United States, according to new research.

U.S. EPA says it is OK for humans to take in up to 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight each day. The new study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggests that we are exposed to at least eight times that amount every day.

'Our data raise grave concern that regulatory agencies have grossly underestimated current human exposure levels,' states the study.

The study also gives the first experimental support that some BPA is likely cleared at similar rates in mice, monkeys and humans, making it possible to extrapolate health studies in mice to humans."

Gayathri Vaidyanathan reports for Greenwire September 20, 2010.