It’s been said that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), found in plastics used to make food containers, bottles and coatings in tin cans and also commonly used in thermal paper in cash register receipts, was extremely dangerous to our health.
In fact, it’s been linked to everything from cancer, heart disease, infertility and kidney and liver problems – but reassessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has now claimed that it actually poses no health risk.
The EFSA acknowledged, according to Reuters, that BPA residues could end up in foods and drinks, and that BPA from thermal paper, cosmetics and dust could be either inhaled or absorbed through the skin. But the levels found in these products are “considerably under” the safe “tolerable daily intake” (TDI) level.
It said that after weighing up “a significant body of new scientific information on its toxic effects,” EFSA’s expert panel concluded that high doses of BPA — hundreds of times above the TDI — were likely to adversely affect the kidney and liver. But at current levels — which it said were often three to five times lower than the TDI of 4 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day — it found “no consumer health risk from bisphenol A exposure.”
So this is good news, in terms of not worrying about yet another thing that can or will make us sick, but it does seem like anything that has the potential to be toxic isn’t really ideal. Maybe don’t stress about it, but also don’t rub your receipts all over your body after you finish grocery shopping?
[Photo from Flickr user stvcr]
