Workers in factories that use bisphenol A have concentrations up to 1,000 times higher than those in the general population.
It poisons populations, pollutes soils and slowly kills the workers who shape it. Bisphenol A (BPA), this endocrine disruptor widely used in the plastics industry, contaminates workers in factories who use it. The results of a federal study of American workers are particularly instructive from this point of view.
They show that workers in factories that use or manufacture bisphenol A have worrying levels of the chemical in their bodies. On average, the levels of BPA in their body are 70 times higher than those observed in the general population.
1000 times greater
In some workers, this contamination has reached dizzying levels. Some had rates 1000 times higher than the highest concentration recorded in the general population in the United States, further specifies the study published this Wednesday in the journal Annals of Work Exposures and Health.
This is the first time that a study has looked at exposure to bisphenol A in factories in the United States. The analyzes focused on 77 workers employed in six US companies that manufacture or use BPA. In 2013 and 2014, participants provided several urine samples, taken after two consecutive days of work.
Analysis of the samples shows that the employee body could load up with BPA after just a few days of work. While in the general population, the BPA impregnation is established at just under two micrograms / gram, in one employee, this contamination reached 18,900 micrograms / gram.
The skin absorbs
“The skin can act as a barrier, but we must keep in mind that it is also a huge surface that can absorb chemicals,” emphasizes the researcher behind this work. It is a very efficient organ for absorbing products that resemble hormones ”.
In the United States (as in France), there are no maximum thresholds for exposure to BPA in the workplace. “If we had clear exposure levels, as for lead, we could deploy additional measures to alert workers to the risks they run”, explains the researcher, who calls for awareness on the toxicity of bisphenol A and the vulnerability of part of the population. Indeed, the impact of such exposure on reproductive and hormonal functions is well known and, in these circumstances, particularly alarming.
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