Chemical in Plastic Linked to Human Heart Disease, Diabetes

For the first time, a large, population-based study links a chemical in plastic baby bottles to heart disease and diabetes in humans. Some scientists say the study — released today to coincide with a Food and Drug Administration meeting — shows that bisphenol A, or BPA, is too dangerous to allow in consumer products, especially those used by babies and pregnant women. BPA, used in everything from polycarbonate plastic bottles to the linings of metal cans, is one of the highest production-volume chemicals in the world, with 2 million tons made every year and demand growing at up to 10% annually, according to the new paper. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have detected it in the urine of 93% of Americans tested. Although scientists have published hundreds of studies about BPA's health risks, most experiments have used animals or cells, with only a handful of small studies in people, says co-author David Melzer of the University of Exeter in England. His study, however, shows that adults with the highest BPA levels were more than twice as likely to have diabetes or cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest.