A new report, published in Hypertension in December 2014, links the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) from canned foods to spikes in blood pressure. The study has drawn attention to potential heart risks associated with the chemical.
You’ll find BPA in plastic bottles, food containers, the linings of cans, and even some cash register receipts. A 2005 study of the general U.S. population detected BPA in the urine of more than 95 percent of people tested.

A synthetic estrogen, BPA can interact with estrogen receptors in your body, blocking or mimicking the effects of the real hormone. Because estrogen is an important player in a host of body functions, BPA could potentially have wide-ranging ill effects on health.
“The majority of health evidence still comes from animal work but in humans we have seen effects on obesity parameters, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, and infertility,” says Karin Michels, ScD PhD, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Dr. Michels co-authored a 2011 study that found high levels of BPA in the urine of people who ate canned soup.
Makers of sippy cups and baby formula container packaging have voluntarily stopped using BPA in their products. But the chemical is still widely used in food packaging. And concerns have been raised that plastics used in products touted as “BPA-free” may also be synthetic estrogens — perhaps with more potent effects on the body.

What the Regulators Say, and Do, About BPA

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended its regulations for sippy cups and baby formula packaging “to no longer provide for the use of BPA-based epoxy resins.” However, the agency states that it made this move because industry has abandoned the use of the chemical in these products. According to the FDA, BPA is “safe at the current levels occurring in foods.”
The European Food Safety Agency in January 2014 recommended lowering the current daily tolerable intake of BPA tenfold — from 50 micrograms per kilogram per day to 5 micrograms per kilogram per day. But they concluded that risks BPA poses to consumer health are “low.”
Nevertheless, not everyone's convinced that BPA's risks are negligible. France moved in 2013 to ban BPA from all food packaging and utensils intended for children younger than three years old. As of January 1, 2015, use of the chemical will be prohibited in France for any product that comes into direct contact with food.

BPA and Heart Disease

Most studies suggesting links between BPA exposure and human health problems have been epidemiological — population studies. This means that they found people with higher levels of the chemical in their bodies were also more likely to have certain health problems. While this suggests a link between BPA and these issues, stronger evidence is needed to show that the chemical actually causes these health problems.
Many investigators are working with lab animals to better understand the effects of BPA on the body. “Some of our studies suggest that BPA can slow electrical conduction and alter mechanical function in the heart,” said Nikki Gillum Posnack, PhD, an assistant research professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC. These early studies were done in hearts that had been removed from animals' bodies, she added. The next steps will be to look at longer-term exposure in whole animals, which is a better model for human exposure to the chemical.
“I'm on the side of not being an alarmist, personally,” says Dr. Posnack. But, she adds, “It's concerning if you have people who are drinking one or two drinks and then all of a sudden their systolic blood pressure goes up 4 to 5 millimeters of mercury,” as the Hypertension study found.
Xiaoqian Gao, a PhD student in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, is also investigating the effects of BPA exposure on the cardiovascular system in animals. She has found that under stress conditions, or when the heart is injured, levels of BPA exposure that are similar to those common in people can promote abnormal heart rhythms.  However, the arrythmia-promoting effect of BPA was only seen in female animals, not males.
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Experts Limit Their Own BPA Exposure

Clearly, the jury's still out on BPA exposure and heart health, and it may be out for a while. Nevertheless, investigators interviewed for this story all said they were doing what they could to limit their own exposure to the chemical.
“While we are still cautious better safe than sorry,” Michels says. “There are no advantages of being exposed to BPA.”
Michels offers the following tips to limit your BPA exposure:
  • Avoid plastic, in particular plastic with the recycling triangle that has the number 7
  • Use glass or stainless steel containers instead
  • Don't heat anything in plastic containers in the microwave
  • Avoid drinking water from plastic water dispensers
  • Avoid food or drink from cans
  • Avoid touching thermal receipt paper (the glossy paper that is mostly used for credit card and other receipts)