BPA Safer Than Contraceptives In Rat Study

The plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) may not be so bad after all, according to results from a new animal study funded by the federal government. Some earlier research in rodents suggested that exposure to even tiny amounts of BPA could cause abnormal sexual development. The latest work, published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, reached a very different conclusion. Researchers fed pregnant rats small amounts of either BPA or an oral contraceptive and then studied their female offspring. Female rats born to mothers who ingested the oral contraceptive had genital malformations, reduced fertility, and exhibited some male-like behaviors. But the scientists found no such effects from BPA, even when the exposure was 4,000 times greater than what most people experience. NPR