BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins that are essential to a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, including many applications important to public health and food safety.
What is BPA?
BPA is one of the most thoroughly tested chemicals in use today and has a safety track record of more than 50 years. The consensus of major government agencies around the world is that BPA is safe as used in food-contact applications. The CLARITY Study, a 5+ year, multipronged U.S. federal government research program and the largest study ever done on BPA, confirms BPA’s safety. The results, released in 2018 by the U.S. National Toxicology Program, were accompanied by a statement from Dr. Stephen Ostroff, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), saying: “our initial review supports our determination that currently authorized uses of BPA continue to be safe for consumers.”
You may have heard claims that BPA exposure causes health effects in people. Scientific research shows that in humans, BPA is quickly metabolized and eliminated from the body – it does not accumulate in blood or tissues. Because of the way BPA is processed in the body, it is very unlikely that exposure to BPA at typical levels could cause health effects.
This is further confirmed by CLARITY, as “the results clearly show that BPA has very little potential to cause health effects, even when people are exposed to it throughout their lives,” said Steven G. Hentges, Ph.D., Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council (ACC).