BPA-Lined Containers May Be Linked To Increased Blood Pressure

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Eating or drinking from bottles or cans lined with the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) could increase a person’s blood pressure, according to new research published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.
While previous research has linked consumption of BPA, a substance used as an epoxy lining for cans and plastic bottles, with high blood pressure and heart rate variability, the new Seoul National University College of Medicine-led study indicates that exposure from canned beverages actually has the same effect.
“A 5 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure by drinking two canned beverages may cause clinically significant problems, particularly in patients with heart disease or hypertension,” study author Yun-Chul Hong, director of the South Korean university’s Environmental Health Center and chair of its Department of Preventive Medicine, said in a statement. “A 20 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
As part of their study, Hong and co-author Sanghyuk Bae recruited 60 adults over the age of 60 (mostly Korean women) from a local community center for a randomized crossover trial. Each participant visited the study site on three different occasions, and was randomly provided with soy milk in either cans or glass bottles.
Two hours after the consumption of each beverage, urine samples were later collected and tested for BPA concentration levels, blood pressure and heart rate variability. The researchers found that urinary BPA concentration increased by as much as 1,600 percent in those consuming canned beverages versus the glass-bottled ones.
Hong and Bae explained that soy milk was the ideal beverage for the test, as it contains no ingredient known to cause blood pressure to become elevated. They believe their findings could help policy-makers, the healthcare industry and the general public become more aware of the cardiovascular health risks associated with BPA exposure.
“Because these results confirm findings from other studies, doctors and patients, particularly those with high blood pressure or heart disease, should be aware of the possible risks from increased blood pressure when consuming canned foods or beverages,” Hong told Stephen Reinberg of HealthDay News.
“Thanks to the crossover intervention trial design, we could control most of the potential confounders… Time variables, such as daily temperatures, however, could still affect the results,” he added. “I suggest consumers try to eat fresh foods or glass bottle-contained foods rather than canned foods and hopefully, manufacturers will develop and use healthy alternatives to BPA for the inner lining of can containers.”
Steven Gilbert, director and founder of the US Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, emphasized the need to find safer alternatives to BPA for can linings, telling Reinberg that he was particularly concerned about children being exposed to the chemical. BPA has been linked to physical and mental development including gynecomastia (male breast growth), he said, as well as behavioral issues, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
However, Steven Hentges from the American Chemistry Council’s Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group disputed the study’s findings, telling HealthDay News that the claims that BPA, which has been declared safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “’may pose a substantial health risk’ is a gross overstatement of the findings, an incredible disservice to public health, and runs contrary to years of research by government scientists.”
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