BPA Linked to Childhood Asthma, How to Limit BPA Exposue?

If parents aren't already concerned enough of the damaging effects of the infamous chemical bisphenol A (BPA), new research released Friday shows that it can cause an increase of asthma in children.  

Excessive exposure to BPA, which interferes with the body's production of certain hormones, has already been linked to increased obesity risks, greater chance of getting heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease later on in life.

The study by researchers from Columbia University found that exposure to BPA may increase a child's risk of asthma, according to a report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study, which tested 568 children and their mothers in New York City, is the first to link early childhood exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) with asthma. Studies with lab mice, however, have found a similar link.

"Exposure to BPA in early childhood in ages 3, 5, and 7 were associated with increased odds of wheeze and asthma at school age between 5 and 12," says Dr. Kathleen Donohue of Columbia University's Center for Children's Environmental Health, according to the report.

"The incidence of asthma in this country is rising, So there's got to be some factors out there that we're not looking at," says Dr. Michael Palumbo of Allergy & Clinical Immunology Associates in the South Hills. Eight percent of the U.S. population is now asthmatic according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

The study doesn't mean BPA causes asthma or wheezing. However "it's an important study because we don't know a lot right now about how BPA affects immune response and asthma," said Kim Harley, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies environmental chemicals and children's health but did not participate in the new research, according to the Scientific American.

BPA has already been banned from baby bottles and removed from the lining of infant formula cans; however, it is still used in other hard plastics and coats the inside of metal cans.

Health experts suggest eating less canned food, and choosing glass, porcelain or stainless steel containers to hold hot food and liquids, rather than plastic containers in order to limit BPA exposure, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.