BPA, Chinese workers and junk science

By ACSH Staff — Oct 29, 2010
Well, BPA is finally making us sick too... no, not the plastic chemical, but all the junk science floating around about it, especially in breathless (but false) media headlines. But a new study is getting a lot of press attention, so there’s no way we can avoid giving it a mention.

Well, BPA is finally making us sick too... no, not the plastic chemical, but all the junk science floating around about it, especially in breathless (but false) media headlines. But a new study is getting a lot of press attention, so there’s no way we can avoid giving it a mention. A study of 218 Chinese factory workers found those with detectable BPA levels in their urine were more likely to have “poor semen quality.”

But “these workers seemed to be exposed to a thousand times more BPA than a typical consumer,” Dr. Ross points out. And there’s no indication at all that the workers’ alleged sperm issues will actually affect their fertility, he adds.

“Even if the results were based on good science, it would have no application to consumers being exposed to BPA in water containers, canned goods and cash register receipts,” Dr. Whelan says. “It’s a junk study, the third in a series of junk studies by the same group.”

“I am astonished that we have been exposed to BPA for 50 years, and no one has been able to find a single human being who has been harmed by it,” says Dr. Ross.