Human body burden of Bisphenol A: a case study of lactating mothers in Florianopolis, Brazil

Abstract Background: Exclusive breast milk is the recommended nutrition by the World Health Organization (WHO) until six months of age, followed by introducing foods with continual breastfeeding. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical used as a monomer in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Human exposure to BPA can cause numerous adverse health effects such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, with children and infants as the most susceptible groups. Thus, this study aimed to determine BPA concentration in the colostrum of 64 mothers hospitalized at the University Hospital Professor Polydoro Ernani de São Thiago through the ELISA technique. We also assessed possible associations between breast milk BPA concentration and lactogenesis II. The results showed that all the breast milk samples contained a high concentration of BPA with a median value of 34.18 ng/mL. In addition, exposure to BPA did not alter the nutritional status of the mother; however, BPA concentration in mothers is influenced by the consumption of food packaged in plastic containers. The total daily intake of BPA in breastfed babies was 19.5 µg/kg/day and 28.5 µg/kg/day was recorded in the 95th percentile of the body weight per day, which is higher than the maximum daily intake by the European Food Safety Authority. This is of public health importance as a high concentration of BPA in the breast milk of the lactating mothers in this study could cause severe health problems in these mothers and much more in the infants breastfeeding on these BPA-contaminated breast milk.