(UPDATED*) Lots of Ink: That plasticizer bisphenol A and sex problems in animals? Now it’s the suspect in serious reproductive disfunction in men, in China.
The fight over regulating Bisphenol A and perhaps its estrogen-mimicking co-suspects, phthalates, is sure to heat up now. A U.S. federally-funded study reports this week in the journal Human Reproduction that at a factory in China where workers get unusually high exposure to BPA, male workers have strikingly high rates of erectile disfunction and impairment of ejaculation.
At the Washington Post, Lyndsey Layton runs through those findings fast and gets immediately to the point: such compounds are in thousands of consumer products and BPA is “so ubiquitous it has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of the U.S. population.” Deeper she reports a source reflecting on doubters unimpressed by previous studies of animals where effects including impaired sexual development in the young seem apparent. The source observes that they said, “Show us the human studies…Now we have a human study, and this can’t be dismissed.”
It’s just the latest in a saga of enviro worriers v. industry reassurances that, at its beginning a few years ago, was hard to pick as something that would rise above other such fade-outs as fear of cancer from power lines or (among the sane) suspicion that autism’s rise is due to vaccinations. This one looks like it’s not going to fade any time soon. Not only is it in a refereed journal, but the authors are with the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, a place well-regarded for its epidemiological savvy. Some news outfits have pursued the issue stubbornly. Their diligence looks closer now to vindication.
Exposures were high – much higher than what American’s typically endure. But high exposures are the mother lode of epidemiologists looking for a way to peg some hard points in a plot of sensitivity to a compound or other environmental factor.
Other stories:
- Web MD – Salynn Boyles: Study: High BPA Linked to Sex Problems in Men ; Includes a segment from an industry man who calls the data “interesting…but of little relevance to the average consumer using products with trace levels…” Perhaps true, one supposes. But the EPA, OSHA, etc. may find it more than interesting.
- NPR – Scott Hensley: BPA at Work Raises Risk of Impotence, Sexual Problems ;
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Meg Kissinger: BPA, sexual problems may be linked. This paper may have investigated BPA and phthalates more aggressively than any other as part of its Chemical Fallout special report.
- AP – Malcolm Ritter: Chemical BPA in workers linked to sex problems ;
- SF Chronicle – Victoria Colliver: Bisphenol A linked to sexual disfunction ;
- *UPDATE addition: US News – Ford Vox: Sex and BPA Don’t Mix, Say Researchers ; Rather complete, balanced, and well-reported review of why this is a good study but perhaps not yet ready to be declared highly pertinent to men generally, by a physician-journalist.
Much more, but in the On-the-Other-Hand Dept:
- Toronto Globe and Mail (Opinion) Margaret Wente: Does BPA give you the willies? It shouldn’t. This ran a few days ago. Too bad it didn’t wait a week so she could re-tune her skepticism – perhaps there’s a way to pooh pooh the new study too. She writes that BPA and Phthalate worries are not shared in other countries and that they are “driven by a few North American environmental groups and a small number of scientists.” She could get the last laugh. But again, this right now is unfortunate timing.
Grist for the Mill: Journal study full text ; Kaiser Permanente Press Release ;
- Charlie Petit
