Cash found to contain alarming levels of BPA
POSTED December 9, 2010 - 10:20 | POSTED BY neha gupta
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on December 9, 2010 - 11:46
BPA, which can be absorbed through skin, is an endocrine disruptor and has been linked with erectile dysfunction and reduced sexual desire.
“Most people don’t expect to find a toxic chemical in their wallets,” said Schreder, who works for the Washington Toxics Coalition in Seattle, which co-sponsored the report with the advocacy group Safer Chemicals Health Families.
The highly controversial chemical is since long been used in the making of plastic.
Almost 8 billion pounds of BPA is used to create products like toys, baby products and other household products every year, statistics reveal.
The study details
The study looked at a group of 22 restaurants and retailers from 20 states and the District of Columbia.
The surveyed places included big names like a Home Depot in Michigan, a Target store in Minnesota and a Wal-Mart in Ohio.
In order to analyze the role of lawmakers in the game, the House of Representatives' Rayburn Cafe and the U.S. Senate's Hart American Grill too were surveyed by the researchers.
Cash register receipts from all the merchants were collected by the researchers and lab tested for the presence of BPA.
The researchers tried to locate the thermal paper with the highest concentration level of the chemical.
The study results
Eleven of the 22 samples were found to contain BPA in "very large quantities" i.e. at least 2.2 percent of the total weight of the receipts.
Surprisingly, holding the receipts for merely 10 seconds resulted in the transfer of 2.5 micrograms of BPA to the skin.
Also, rubbing the receipt on skin led to the transfer of 15 times as much BPA.
Further, a total of 22 dollar bills from people in 18 states and Washington, D.C. were analyzed by the researchers.
Out of them, 21 of the bills tested positive for BPA with concentration levels ranging from 0.12 parts per million to 11 parts per million.
However, experts believe that a much bigger trial is required to prove the actual presence of BPA in the bills.
“I hear these kinds of reports and my first reaction is to shrug and say, ‘So what?'" said Neal Langerman, a chemist and member of the health and safety division of the American Chemical Society. "The data don't even rise to the level of speculation."
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