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Japan Japan News Chemical used in plastic products a threat to babies | Chemical used in plastic products a threat to babies |
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| Wednesday, 14 May 2008 | |
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A potential hormone-damaging chemical used in plastic products could affect fetuses and newborn babies even though it meets safety standards, a study has found. Researchers at the National Institute of Health Sciences have found the chemical substance -- bisphenol A -- could disrupt the central nerve system of fetuses and children, after they conducted experiments on rats. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is looking into consulting the Food Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office over the finding. According to researchers at the institute, they administered different amounts of bisphenol A to five groups of mother rats every day since the sixth day of their conception until 20 days after they gave birth to baby rats. They then compared the estradiol cycle of their offspring with their counterparts born from rats that were not administered with bisphenol A to see how the chemical substance affected baby rats through the placenta and breast milk of the mother rats. Researchers found that offspring that were born to mother rats that had been administered with bisphenol A in volumes of 0.05 and 0.005 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, and a higher amount of bisphenol A, continued to be in estrus when they reached an adult age of seven months old. With humans, 0.05 milligrams of bisphenol A per kilogram of body weight is the maximum acceptable daily intake of the substance under current safety standards. "It can be thought that the abnormality in the estradiol cycle (of the offspring) was triggered after bisphenol A exerted an influence on their central nerve system. Adult bodies can ignore such influences, but with fetuses and children who are in the course of development, even a small amount of bisphenol A could affect their central nerve and immune systems, which could trigger abnormalities," said Jun Kanno, a researcher at the institute. The Ministry of the Environment in 2004 acknowledged that bisphenol A is thought to have endocrine disruption effects on fish but not on humans. However, the U.S. government filed a report in April this year that said there is a possibility that bisphenol A could affect the nerve system and behavior of children and fetuses and bring about early puberty among girls. The Canadian government has also announced a plan to ban the import, sales and advertisement of baby bottles that contain bisphenol A.  Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.
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