Is This A Source Of BPA Exposure?

It's well-known that a common source of exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is through diet, since it can leach into food from water bottles, food containers and cans. But a new pilot study suggests another potential route for BPA exposure that you probably haven't thought of before: handling receipts.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that people who handled thermal paper receipts for two hours without using gloves had higher concentrations of BPA in their urine, compared with when they used gloves. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, University of California, San Francisco, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center were involved in the study.

The researchers had 24 volunteers handle thermal receipts -- which are commonly used at gas stations, grocery stores and ATMs -- with gloves and without gloves for two hours each. They provided urine samples before and after each handling, so that researchers could detect BPA levels. At the start of the study, BPA was detected in 83 percent of the urine samples, but in 100 percent of the urine samples at the end of the study.

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