Bisphenol A, a harmful compound used in the production of plastics, can penetrate the skin. A significant source of it is probably printouts from fiscal printers – these are the results of new research by French and American scientists – reports Nature.
Bisphenol A, BPA for short (dian, 2,2-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl) propane) is a highly toxic organic compound from the phenol group, commonly used in the production of plastics. Canadian research from 2005-2009 has shown that it is carcinogenic and causes hormonal disorders in people exposed to its influence. It has not been found that only high doses of this compound are harmful – low doses of BPA can also cause diseases and disorders, e.g. in pregnant women.
The Canadian government and the US agency dealing in drugs and food, the FDA, demanded that manufacturers completely withdraw bisphenol A from the production process of plastic baby bottles, because it caused severe hormonal disorders in infants.
BPA is used in virtually every country in the world, incl. in the production of disposable beverage bottles, films and disposable plastic containers for food storage. According to American research, more of this compound is found in plastics from developing countries, but it is also found in plastics from Western Europe and the USA.
The first study, conducted by the team of Daniel Zalko, a toxicologist at the Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Paris, showed that bisphenol A readily penetrates the skin. This explained why human BPA levels are higher than predicted from the calculated cumulative doses they could get from foods and drinks that would have penetrated bisphenol A during storage.
Fiscal receipts are likely to be a particular source of the harmful substance, the Zalko team found, as BPA is present in both the cash paper blocks and the plastic parts of the printheads in the printers used at the cash registers. In this form, it is also most easily absorbed into the body.
BPA penetrates the skin strongly. It would be good to advise pregnant women to cover their hands or wash them after contact with store bills. For the same reason, we would advise not to use plastic baby bottles, Daniel Zalko told Nature.
To investigate BPA permeability, researchers radioactively labeled bisphenol A and observed the penetration of the substance by measuring radioactivity from pig ear – the most widely used model of human skin. The experiment was later repeated on small pieces of human skin. In the pig model, up to 65 percent. BPA penetrated the skin. In the human model, it was about 46 percent. Both types of tissue were capable of metabolizing BPA
Zalko’s conclusions were confirmed and refined by another study by a team of epidemiologist Joe Braun at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. He examined the concentration of BPA in the urine of 389 pregnant women, comparing these data with the occupation. The highest concentration of bisphenol A was found in the urine of cashiers in shops – 2,8 mg / gram. Female teachers had a concentration of 1,8 mg / gram, while female workers had a concentration of 1,2 mg / gram. The latter result was a surprise, since previous studies had found a higher concentration of BPA in the urine of worker bees.
Braun’s team believes that receipts pose the greatest threat to the cashiers themselves, who are in constant contact with them. In other women, BPS from several cash registers a day is added to the doses from bottles and packaging, which, Braun adds, may indicate that in fact doses from these sources may be higher than expected. (PAP)