Health News

BPA in cans safe: Health Canada Level of chemical leaching from linings within acceptable range, federal agency asserts MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER May 30, 2008 Health Canada says the bisphenol A levels found in testing by The Globe and Mail and CTV to be leaching into a variety of canned foods, ranging from ravioli to apple juice and beer, are "within the safe range." "There are no safety concerns vis-à-vis the occurrence or the presence of bisphenol A in those canned foods," Samuel Godefroy, Health Canada's director of chemical safety in foods, told CTV Newsnet. But he said the government is working with the food industry to set migration targets to limit the amount of the hormonally active chemical leaking into food and beverages from cans, where it is used to make their inside linings. "We are encouraging manufacturers in general to lower the levels of any chemical, including BPA, in the food products that are available on the market," he said. Print Edition - Section Front Section A Front Enlarge Image More National Stories * Waterfront plan would tear down east Gardiner * Ottawa wants safe-injection site shut down * Police focus on father in grisly Calgary killings * Bernier liaison was all 'business,' his ex says * Safety first when biking for charity * Hopes of saving landmark go up in smoke * Go to the National section The Globe and Mail The Globe/CTV testing found traces of the substance in every one of 14 samples of canned goods, with levels as high as 18.2 parts per billion, in tomato sauce, and 17.9 ppb in apple juice. Several of the readings exceeded what Health Canada found this year in its own tests on canned liquid infant formula. The latter caused the federal agency to say it would work with baby food makers to try to lower the levels. Last month, Health Canada also said it intends to ban polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, which are also made from the chemical, and put bisphenol A on the country's toxic substances list - the first country in the world to take such action - based in part on concerns that exposure to infants didn't provide enough of a safety margin. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is the subject of major scientific controversy because the synthetic chemical is able to mimic the hormone estrogen in living things, and has surprised researchers by being biologically active at exceedingly small concentrations. There is a growing body of recent scientific literature, based on animal experiments, linking exposures around or below Health Canada's tolerable daily intake of 25 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, to adverse health outcomes including chromosomal damage to eggs in ovaries, prostate cancer, breast cancer and abnormal brain development. Under the Health Canada daily exposure standard, established in 1995, a child would have to drink about 28 litres a day of a product such as apple juice containing the amounts found by The Globe and CTV to exceed the safety limit, according to an industry estimate provided to the news organizations. But the lowest-dose animal experiment to date, a 2005 study at Boston's Tufts University, found a daily exposure - equivalent to a human drinking less than half a cup of juice in the Globe/CTV survey - was enough to double the milk ducts in rodents. These types of findings have led some researchers to be concerned about even the relatively small amounts leaching from canned foods. "Am I concerned? Absolutely, because babies consuming that amount are clearly in harm's way," said Frederick vom Saal, a professor at the University of Missouri who is considered one of the leading authorities on BPA and whose laboratory conducted the can tests for the two news organizations. By his count, there are about 40 laboratory studies that have found adverse health outcomes from BPA around or below Health Canada's tolerable daily intake, or maximum safe exposure amount. Dr. vom Saal contended that Health Canada's exposure standard is flawed because it sets the same safety limit for all ages, even though young children and fetuses don't have the same capability as adults to metabolize BPA into a harmless form. He also said the standard is based on traditional toxicology tests that assume a chemical is more dangerous at increasingly higher doses, rather than treating it as a sex hormone, which is more biologically active at trace concentrations. But Health Canada's Mr. Godefroy said government scientists looked at the level as part of its recent risk assessment and concluded a change wasn't needed.