This weekend was full of surprising news stories. The strangest came from a Sydney Morning Herald article claiming that ingestion of environmental chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) may have caused the increase in women’s breast size observed over the past 50 years. While the article addresses other health concerns such as obesity, it places a strong emphasis on chemical exposures.
“The estrogenic potency of BPA is several orders of magnitude lower than estrogens women have endogenously from their ovaries, and to a less extent, the adrenal glands,” ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross asserts. “BPA cannot possibly contribute to such gross physiological changes in human beings. Even phytoestrogens found naturally in food contribute to estrogenic effects to a larger extent than BPA. This is complete clap-trap.”