Reducing exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) lowers levels of this environmental estrogen in women

The article, entitled "Randomized Intervention Trial to Decrease Bisphenol A Urine Concentrations in Women: Pilot Study," shows that among the participants, the women in the control group who did not take part in the BPA-limiting intervention, had significant increases in both urinary BPA levels and weight gain after 3 weeks.

Todd Hagobian, PhD and coauthors from California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA), propose future large-scale randomized trials to confirm these findings and to determine the potential positive health effects of reduced exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals on risk factors for disorders such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"This study shows that by switching to BPA-free products it is, in fact, possible for women who have been exposed to BPA to reduce their body burden of the compound, as measured by urinary BPA levels," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health. "Although many consumers tend to reject products made of plastics containing BPA, there are unfortunately still many other endocrine disrupting chemicals in our environment."