Study Blames BPA For Behavioral Problems In Girls

A recent study involving Cincinnati-area girls has shown that females exposed to higher levels of bisphenol A (BPA) before birth have more behavioral issues than their counterparts. According to researchers the higher levels of exposure made young females more anxious and over-active than lower-level exposed females.

Researchers conducting the study were quick to point out that a direct link has not been discovered at this time about the risks associated with BPA and giving birth to a daughter. Interestingly the study did not find the same correlation among boys who’s mothers came in contact with higher levels of BPA.

According to study author Joe Braun, from the Harvard School of Public Health:

“The vast majority of our children were typically-developing children and didn’t meet any clinical criteria for behavioral problems.”

Fox News spoke with Amir Miodovnik, a children’s environmental health researcher at The Mount Sinai Medical Center who said of the study:

“Other groups are going to have to replicate these findings to be able to strengthen the implications of this particular study.”

To conduct the study researchers collected urine samples two times from 244 pregnant women in the Cincinnati area  and then measured that urine for BPA concentrations. Following labor researchers then collected BPA levels from children each year until the age of three. After three years parents filled out a survey about anxiety levels in their children along with issues of depression, hyperactivity and aggression.

The study found that most women had an average concentration of BPA around two micrograms per liter while women with a 10-fold increase in those levels typically had anxious or depressed daughters.

The study also took into account if a mother suffered from depression during the pregnancy along with their income level, race, marital status and education.

It should be noted that the study doesn’t necessarily mean that BPA is responsible for all issues of anxiety since a mother with higher levels could be hurting their unborn child by consuming too much processed and packaged foods and canned offerings.

In the meantime researchers are still studying the possibility that BPA is an “endocrine disruptor”, a chemical that interferes with naturally occurring hormones in the body, chemicals that researchers from this study believe effect girls more than boys because of the hormone make-up they possess.

Because of similar studies BPA in baby bottles has been banned throughout Europe and Canada.