Bisphenol A in thermal paper receipts: An opportunity for evidence-based prevention

摘要

The recent report by Taylor et al. (2011) on the pharmacokinetics of bisphenol A (BPA) emphasizes the similarities between humans, monkeys, and mice in the metabolism of this ubiquitous and potentially toxic synthetic chemical. The authors suggested that human exposure to BPA may be "much higher than previously assumed." They observed that a potentially important nonfood source of exposure to BPA may be the thermal paper used in cash register receipts.BPA is found in receipt paper (Mendum et al. 2010) and appears to transfer readily from receipts to skin (Biedermann et al. 2010) and to be absorbed transdermally (Zalko et al. 2011). Retail workers, who likely have more frequent exposure to cash receipts containing BPA than other Americans, have been found to have elevated levels of urinary BPA (Lunder et al. 2010). BPA has been shown to be capable of crossing the placenta (Balakrishnan et al. 2010) and to be toxic during early mammalian development (vom Saal and Hughes 2005). This toxicity is relevant to humans, given the similarities in BPA metabolism observed across species by Taylor et al. (2011). Prenatal exposure of human infants to BPA has been associated with behavioral anomalies (Braun et al. 2009).