December 8, 2016

expert reaction to paper on bpa and teethers

Publishing in Environmental Science & Technology, researchers reported finding traces of certain chemicals, including BPA, in teethers. A Before the Headlines analysis accompanied these comments.

Dr Oliver Jones, Senior Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at RMIT University in Melbourne, said:

“This work adds new knowledge to potential exposure routes of chemicals such as BPA and parabens to humans but adds no data on their potential toxicity – and indeed does not try to. The finding of BPA in products labelled ‘BPA free’ is interesting and indicates more compliance testing of such products may be in order.

“While children’s wellbeing is an emotive issue and of concern to us all, the implications to public health from this work are low. There are no studies that show that any of the compounds tested are associated with adverse effects in humans and the levels found for each compound were well below regulatory limits and orders of magnitude below those needed to have an effect.”

Prof Chris Collins, Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Reading, said:

“We all want to protect our children’s health and so we wish to reduce their exposure to potentially toxic chemicals and appropriate legislation has been introduced for toys and drinking cups. The paper does detect chemicals of concern, but the levels reported are at least 100 times below those which are likely to have an effect.”

* ‘Migration of Parabens, Bisphenols, Benzophenone-Type UV Filters, Triclosan, and Triclocarban from Teethers and Its Implications for Infant Exposure’ by Alexandros G. Asimakopoulos et al. will be published in Environmental Science & Technology at 1pm UK time on Wednesday 7 December, which is also when the embargo will lift. 

Declared interests

None declared