Biomonitoring Equivalents for bisphenol A (BPA)

Abstract

Recent efforts worldwide have resulted in a growing database of measured concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine samples taken from the general population. However, few tools exist to assist in the interpretation of the measured values in a health risk context. Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs) are defined as the concentration or range of concentrations of a chemical or its metabolite in a biological medium (blood, urine, or other medium) that is consistent with an existing health-based exposure guideline. BE values are derived by integrating available data on pharmacokinetics with existing chemical risk assessments. This study reviews available health-based exposure guidance values for bisphenol A (BPA) from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). BE values were derived based on data on BPA urinary excretion in humans. The BE value corresponding to the oral provisional tolerable daily intake (pTDI) of 25 μg/kg-d from Health Canada is 1 mg/L (1.3 mg/g creatinine); value corresponding to the US EPA reference dose (RfD) and EFSA tolerable daily intake (TDI) estimates (both of which are equal to 50 μg/kg-d) is 2 mg/L (2.6 mg/g creatinine). These values are estimates of the 24-h average urinary BPA concentrations that are consistent with steady-state exposure at the respective exposure guidance values. These BE values may be used as screening tools for evaluation of central tendency measures of population biomonitoring data for BPA in a risk assessment context and can assist in prioritization of the potential need for additional risk assessment efforts for BPA relative to other chemicals.