Safety of Polycarbonate Water Carboys for Residual and Migration Levels of Bisphenol-A

Abstract

Polycarbonate (PC) materials are widely used for the packaging of drinkable water. The use of PC materials as food packaging raises some concerns for the migration of Bisphenol A (BPA), which is the monomer of PC. Therefore, in this research, it was aimed to determine the quality of new and old (life time ended) PC water carboys in terms of residual BPA and BPA migration levels with respect to storage conditions. For this purpose, BPA migration was determined by storing at three different temperatures (5, 20 and 40C) for seven different storage times (1., 5., 10., 20., 30., 45. and 60 days.) Residual and migrated BPA levels were determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detector. As a result, PC water carboys contained low levels of residual of BPA, and lower or higher residual BPA levels were detected in old materials compared to new materials. The BPA migration level increased by temperature and time, and storage under sunlight increased the level of BPA migration. BPA migration levels under all storage conditions were below the specific migration limit for BPA. In order to reach the tolerable daily intake of BPA even under the worst storage condition of PC water carboys, daily water consumption was calculated as 16 liters for a person with a body weight of 60 kg. On the other hand, this daily water consumption might not be rational for a person. Therefore, it was concluded that PC water carboys possessed no risk in terms of BPA migration levels under the conditions studied.