Green | October 28, 2008 | 6 comments

Lead researcher on BPA study accepts $5 million from industry

source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15355.cfm

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JanforGore
Charles Gelman, a retired manufacturer of syringes and medical filtration devices who considers Bisphenol A (BPA) to be "perfectly safe", gave $5 million to the research center headed by Martin Philbert, the chairman of a Food and Drug Administration panel about to rule on the chemical's safety. The donation is nearly 25 times larger than the $210,000 annual budget of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, where Philbert is founder and co-director. Philbert failed to disclose the donation to the FDA, and agency officials only learned of it through reporters.

Gelman, who was once called "the second worst polluter in Michigan" by the state's Department of Natural Resources said he considers the chemical, which is used to make baby bottles, reusable food containers and plastic wraps, to be safe. Worries about health risks posed by the chemical are exaggerated by "mothers' groups and others who don't know the science," Gelman said.

Apparently Gelman is ignorant of the fact that most studies on BPA have linked the chemical to cancer, heart disease, ADHD and reproductive failures in lab animals; those that didn't find harm overwhelmingly were paid for by the chemical industry.

More than 90 percent of people over the age of six test positive for BPA in the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The levels present in the average American are far greater than the levels present in the animals under study that have documented the damaging health effects of BPA. It should be noted that no level has ever been found in animal experiments that doesn't cause harm. Gelman said he had made his views on BPA clear to Philbert in several conversations. Philbert denied that.

"At no time have the Gelman family or any other interested/disinterested person, persons, corporations or other entity contacted me or attempted to influence my scientific judgment on the matter," Philbert wrote in an e-mail.

Philbert's committee is expected to release its opinion this month. It will advise the FDA on a draft assessment released by the agency in September. It should come as no surprise that the draft found that products made with BPA are safe for food storage.

The decision of Philbert's committee is expected to have huge implications on the regulation and sale of the chemical in items such as baby bottles, reusable food containers and plastic wraps.

Gelman said he and Philbert talk often. He said Philbert eventually told him that he did not want to have any more discussions on the subject of BPA because he was concerned about the appearance of impropriety. But, Gelman said, "He knows where I stand."

Philbert steadfastly denied any conflict of interest, stating "until today, no question has been raised with respect to my impartiality in this matter," he wrote in an e-mail. "I am not open to any undue influence and have taken on this (unwelcome) task with all due diligence and seriousness."

If a $5 million donation from an individual with a strong, vested interest in the outcome of the study is not considered a blatant impropriety, one has to ask the question, what is?
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Unethical? An impropriety? Why of course not. ::sarcasm::
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6 comments // Lead researcher on BPA study accepts $5 million from industry

  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
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    • Our Stolen Future: Background on BPA... what it is, how it is used, and what does science say about exposure risks.

      'While Bisphenol A was first synthesized in 1891, the first evidence of its estrogenicity came from experiments in the 1930's feeding BPA to ovariectomised rats (Dodds and Lawson 1936, 1938). Some wildly popular water bottles are made of polycarbonate

      Another compound invented during that era, diethylstilbestrol, turned out to be more powerful as an estrogen, so bisphenol A was shelved... until polymer chemists discovered that it could be polymerized to form polycarbonate plastic. Unfortunately, the ester bond that links BPA monomers to one another to form a polymer is not stable and hence the polymer decays with time, releasing BPA into materials with which it comes into contact, for example food or water.

      Bisphenol A is now deeply imbedded in the products of modern consumer society, not just as the building block for polycarbonate plastic (from which it then leaches as the plastic ages) but also in the manufacture of epoxy resins and other plastics, including polysulfone, alkylphenolic, polyalylate, polyester-styrene, and certain polyester resins.

      Its uses don't end with the making of plastic. Bisphenol A has been used as an inert ingredient in pesticides (although in the US this has apparently been halted), as a fungicide, antioxidant, flame retardant, rubber chemical, and polyvinyl chloride stabilizer.

      These uses create a myriad of exposures for people. Bisphenol A-based polycarbonate is used as a plastic coating for children's teeth to prevent cavities, as a coating in metal cans to prevent the metal from contact with food contents, as the plastic in food containers, refrigerator shelving, baby bottles, water bottles, returnable containers for juice, milk and water, micro-wave ovenware and eating utensils.

      Other exposures result from BPA's use in "films, sheets, and laminations; reinforced pipes; floorings; watermain filters; enamels and vanishes; adhesives; artificial teeth; nail polish; compact discs; electric insulators; and as parts of automobiles, certain machines, tools, electrical appliances, and office automation instruments" (Takahashi and Oishi 2000).

      BPA contamination is also widespread in the environment. For example, BPA can be measured in rivers and estuaries at concentrations that range from under 5 to over 1900 nanograms/liter. Sediment loading can also be significant, with levels ranging from under 5 to over 100 µg/kg (ppb) BPA is quite persistent as under normal conditions in the environment it does not readily degrade (Rippen 1999).

      What this all means is that most of your life you are within arm's length or closer to bisphenol A. No wonder the debate over its toxicity is so intense.'

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
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      JanforGore  
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    • 10/28/08
      BPA Ruling Flawed, Panel Says

      The same as the ruling on genetically modified foods to appease Monsanto.The FDA does not care about the safety of Americans. All it cares about is profit for corporations to keep donations coming in.The political ties to the FDA are killing people. If people want to know why there is so much disease in this country, look to the toxic chemicals that our products are coated with and contain. Especially regarding our babies. Toxic plastic bottles filled with genetically modified soy formula. Risking your baby's health just to feed them is not how life should be.

    • 3 years ago
  • jjmaster
  • JanforGore
  • jjmaster
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