Using “BPA-free” plastic products could be as harmful to human health — including a developing brain — as those products that contain the controversial chemical, suggest scientists in a new study led by the University of Missouri and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For decades, scientists have studied BPA extensively in animal models with results indicating the chemical plays a role in early pregnancy loss, placental diseases and various negative health outcomes after birth. As these adverse health effects have become more widely known, companies have turned to using alternative chemicals to develop plastic products — namely water bottles and food containers — and often labeling them “BPA-free.” However, MU scientist Cheryl Rosenfeld warns these chemical alternatives, such as bisphenol S (BPS), still aren’t safe for people to use.
In the study, Rosenfeld and her colleagues focused on examining the effects of BPS on a mouse’s placenta. She said the placenta serves as a historical record of what an unborn child faces while in the womb; the placenta also can transfer whatever the mother might be exposed to in her blood, such as harmful chemicals, into the developing child.
Read more at University of Missouri-Columbia
