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Reporter deprives listeners of reliable BPA science coverage
Jon Hamilton, a science correspondent at National Public Radio, posted a health blog entitled "BPA safer than contraceptives in rat study" on October 30.
Hamilton reports on the results of a recent study published in the journal Toxicological Sciences. The government-funded study examined the effects of low-dose exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and ethinyl estradiol (EE)–an estrogen hormone used in oral contraceptives–on the development of reproductive organs in male rats. The researchers chose BPA and EE because of their established estrogenic effects.
In the study, the male rats born to pregnant mothers that were given the higher oral doses of EE had smaller reproductive organs and reduced sperm counts. In contrast, the oral exposure to the different doses selected for the BPA treatments yielded no significant effect on the Longs Evans strain of male rats used in the study. Based on that result, Hamilton's article concludes: "The plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) may not be so bad after all."
The authors themselves do not confirm that statement.