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Chemical in common household products pose cancer risk 4-1-08
Bisphenol A, a chemical that leaches into food and beverages from many
consumer products, causes normal, non-cancerous human breast cells to express
genes characteristic of aggressive breast cancer cells. That’s the finding of a
“Priority Report” in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research, the
official journal of The American Association for Cancer Research.
This new information about bisphenol A (BPA) is timely because the State of
California is currently considering placing BPA on the Prop 65 list of hazardous
chemicals, and State Senator Fiona Ma has proposed legislation that would ban
BPA in products used by children.
The study was done by researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center
Research Institute, in collaboration with the Stanford Genome Technology Center.
The findings are significant because BPA is found in many plastic water bottles,
in plastic baby bottles, in the lining in food cans, as well as in sealants used
by dentists to protect teeth.
“This is a very common compound that most of us are exposed to on a regular
basis, often without even being aware of it,” says William Goodson, M.D., Senior
Clinical Research Scientist at the Institute and lead researcher on the study.
“If it’s true that exposure to BPA can cause normal, non-cancerous human breast
cells to behave in ways that are more characteristic of aggressive breast cancer
cells, this is very worrying.”
The researchers did needle aspirations on eight consented women at high risk of
breast cancer, or its recurrence, to remove a small sample of non-cancerous
cells. The cells were exposed to BPA in the lab and then analyzed to see if the
exposure had altered, in any way, the gene expression of the cells.
“We screened 40,000 genes in normal human cells that had been exposed to BPA and
found a striking increase in the sets of genes that promote cell division,
increase cell metabolism, and increase resistance to drugs that usually kill
cancer cells, and prevent cells from developing to their normal mature forms,”
says says Shanaz Dairkee, Ph.D., the Principal Investigator of this California
State-funded project at CPMCRI, and the co-author of the study. “Breast cancer
patients with this kind of gene expression tend to have a higher recurrence than
other patients, and they have a worse survival rate.”
The researchers chose to focus on BPA because it is a common compound with a
controversial reputation. BPA acts like an estrogen, and in animal studies has
been shown to have carcinogenic effects including increasing the risk of breast
and prostate cancer, as well as reducing sperm-count and impacting the immune
system. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004 found
that 95 percent of people tested had traces of BPA in their urine, with women
having higher blood concentrations of BPA then men, and children having higher
concentrations than adults.
“Our use of fresh cells for short term cultures in this research is unusual in
medical research,” emphasizes Dr. Goodson, “which makes the results especially
useful because this is the closest we can ethically get to studying the effects
of giving BPA directly to living people. Our cells are much closer to normal
tissue than usual cell culture techniques which use cells that have been growing
in laboratories for months or even years.”
"Although the study itself does not prove that BPA causes malignancy, the
observation that exposure to BPA altered the expression of genes in human breast
cells deserves further investigation," says Wenzhong Xiao, Ph.D., a senior
researcher at Stanford Genome Technology Center and a co-author of the study.
The concentration of BPA that the researchers tested was very low (less than one
tenth of a millionth of a gram per milliliter), but this concentration of BPA
has been found in blood from pregnant women in both the United States and
Germany.
Comment:
What exactly is bisphenol A? It was first made in 1891, and was investigated
for use as a replacement for estrogen. View the chemical structure here. It is
used in the production of epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics (often
identified by the recycling number 7), which find service in a variety of
applications, especially food and drink packaging. These include:
Common Metal Coatings Liners of food cans (6 billion pounds a year)
Insides of water pipes
Dental Fillings, Baby Bottles The hard plastic ones
Water Coolers and Bottles,
Tableware and Food Storage Containers,
Medical Devices, Sunglasses,
CDs and DVDs,
Electronic equipment,
Automobile parts,
Sports equipment
Construction Glazing and “Bulletproof Glass”
When dealing with breakdown products that can leach out of materials, your
best bet is to try to stay clear of items that are worn and old, especially if
they have scratches. Also, heating up plastics can increase the likelihood of
BPA and other compounds coming out.