EEA says European population’s exposure to bisphenol A use exceeds safe health thresholds

According to the EEA report, based on data collected in an EU human biomonitoring study, up to 100% of the participating individuals in 11 EU countries were likely to be exposed to the chemical, at levels above safe health thresholds.

This raises important health concerns for the EU population as a whole. Taking into account the recently concluded EU-funded research project on human biomonitoring (HBM4EU), the EEA report presents the latest information on human exposure to bisphenol A. The report also highlights the potential health risks for people exposed to unsafe levels of BPA.

The impact of bisphenol A on our health

The EU is increasingly concerned about the high volume of bisphenol A used in many consumer products and its impact on human health. People are exposed to BPA mainly through diet because the chemical is present in a number of plastics commonly used in food and drink packaging. In April, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) published its latest scientific opinion reassessing the risks to public health from exposure to BPA. The Agency also concluded that, at present, dietary exposure to BPA, especially through canned food products, is the main source of exposure for all age groups.

EFSA concludes that BPA can damage the human immune system even at very low doses. This is in addition to a number of already known adverse effects on human health, such as endocrine disruption, reduced fertility and allergic skin reactions.

The latest human biomonitoring data from HBM4EU support EFSA’s conclusion that BPA exposure poses a health concern for the European population. Human biomonitoring provides actual measurements of total internal exposure resulting from multiple sources of exposure. Biomonitoring data on levels of bisphenol A in human urine show that, despite the various regulatory measures that have been adopted since 2015, exposure remains too high.

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More information on human biomonitoring research

The European human biomonitoring project, HBM4EU, conducted between January 2017 and June 2022, generated harmonised European-wide human biomonitoring data on the incidence of chemicals in the European population and their health effects.

Bisphenol A and two other bisphenols used as substitutes for BPA (bisphenol S and bisphenol F) were measured in the urine of 2 756 adults from 11 countries, namely Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland, representing northern, eastern, southern and western Europe. In the countries that participated in the biomonitoring of GAP, the level of exceedance ranged from 71% to 100%. The exposure of the European population to BPA is therefore too high and constitutes a potential health hazard.

It should be noted that the limit of quantification of the analytical methods used to monitor BPA in human urine is above the human biomonitoring guideline value (HBM-GV). This means that the reported exceedances are minimal; in fact, all 11 countries are likely to have 100% exceedance rates of people exposed above safe levels.

More information: European Environment Agency