Erectile Dysfunction due to BPA in Plastics

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical found in hard, clear plastic used to make everything from baby bottles to food packaging, may increase the risk of erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems in male factory workers exposed to large amounts of the substance.
The health effects of BPA are risk of brain damage, birth defects, hyperactivity, heart disease, early puberty, obesity, and prostate cancer.  Low level of exposure from plastics doesn’t pose a health risk to adults.
The potential health effects have caused some baby-bottle and water-bottle manufacturers to stop using the chemical, at least in part because of public concern. BPA is not found in soft, pliable plastic used in most water bottles.
Among the men who work with BPA, the risk of having difficulty ejaculating was seven times greater than it was among the non-exposed group, and the risk of erectile problems was more than four times greater. The BPA-exposed workers have higher rates of low sex drive and lower overall satisfaction with their sex lives.
Epoxy resin (which contains the chemical) is used in the lining of canned foods and is another potential source of BPA in addition to hard, clear plastic.
The greater a worker’s exposure to BPA—which was measured using spot air and urine samples—the more likely he was to have sexual dysfunction.
It’s not cause and effect, but when you have the kind of ambient air quality assessment that they made, it comes pretty close to cause and effect.”

 

When BPA enters the body, it can mimic the effects of estrogen and may block male sex hormones, including testosterone. The study has implications beyond male sexual dysfunction, however, since sexual dysfunction is often associated with broader reproductive health problems.
It’s unclear, for instance, whether the everyday exposure to BPA that people receive from food packaging and other plastics is significant enough to produce the sexual dysfunction seen in workers, who were inhaling the chemical all day.
The BPA levels measured in the study are “extraordinarily high,” and they may have little or no relevance to “somebody drinking water out of a bottle.”
You need to be prudent and cautious about whether this chemical actually is impacting reproduction. You have to stop and say, ‘Whoa, now you are starting to get data in animals, which are manifested in humans.'”
FDA report, expressed  “some” concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brains, behavior, and prostate glands of fetuses, infants, and children, as well as “minimal” concern about earlier puberty for girls.

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