CLASH OF VIEWS ON BISPHENOLA

Abstract

THE CONTROVERSY OVER BISPHE- I nol A—the monomer used to make polycarbonate plastic— vividly illustrates the types of conflicts that can arise over the interpretation of scientific literature. The conflict grew intense recently as various interests struggled over how to interpret research on the monomer published on April 1 in Current Biology [13,546 (2003); C&EN, April 7, page 71. The American Plastics Council tends to discount the new findings, which have alarmed many scientists. In the article, Patricia A. Hunt, an associate professor of genetics at Case Western Reserve University, reports that when mice are exposed to very low levels of bisphenol A—commonly known as BPA— it induces highly significant increases in two types of chromosomal aberrations in developing mouse eggs. In human eggs, such abnormalities are the leading cause of miscarriage, mental retardation, and congenital defects, such as Down's syndrome. If a mouse egg with a chromosomal aberration were fertilized, the resulting fetus would ...