NPR health blog misrepresents human BPA study.
An online National Public Radio blog suggests that a study examining Chinese workers exposed to BPA on the job is not relevant to average Americans.
In a recent posting on NPR’s health blog, contributor Jon Hamilton incorrectly summarizes the findings of a recent BPA study. He writes that the study "has some limits" because it looked at "just 130 Chinese men who worked in factories" that made or used BPA and compared them to "88 men who didn't have detectable levels of BPA in their urine."
However, Hamilton neglected to report that the study separately examined those men who did not work in industries that use BPA. These "environmentally exposed" individuals had average levels of BPA that were slightly lower than the concentrations measured in Americans. This is in contrast to the quote Hamilton uses from an industry spokesperson: "because the levels of exposure were so high, the study doesn't have much relevance for people in the U.S."
Instead, author De-Kun Li and colleagues showed that both sperm count and sperm vitality decreased as BPA exposures increased in the 88 environmentally exposed men. The study clearly shows that exposures to levels similar to what Americans experience could cause damage to men’s sperm.
Additionally, this study is not alone in its findings. A recent previous study has also found links between BPA exposure and decreasing sperm quality in environmentally exposed men. These two studies, together with several animal studies, provide strong evidence that BPA could affect male fertility.
While Hamilton points out that the National Toxicology Program (NTP) has expressed "negligible concern" that BPA could affect reproduction in environmentally exposed individuals, it should be noted that the NTP’s decision was made several years ago. The studies linking BPA to reduced sperm quality have both been published this year.
