Comments on: Study Links Fetal Bisphenol A Exposure to Behavioral Problems in Girls

By: Tom Andersen

Tom Andersen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:40:50 +0000

Looks wrong. With 244 subjects, thats about 120 girls. Then the study only finds that women with higher BPA at weeks 16 and 26 had bad behaving girls. How many women is this based on?

Ok – downloaded the study. It looks like by the same reckoning, that BPA ingestion actually CURES behaviour in boys! (look at Figure 2 A vs B). The real answer is had by ignoring a girl vs boy division, in which case the study shows exactly nothing, which is all you could expect from an n = 244. In any case the random dots on the graphs are obviously not anything to draw a conclusion from.

If girls vs boys did not bring out a signal, the ‘researchers’ could have used any of the other factors they recorded, like race, income, education, etc.

Studies like this need to get in the news, so that the people who did the test can get more money to do more work. The sad state of science funding means that sensationalism is a great way to get funded.

By: Jay Fox

Jay Fox — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:11:31 +0000

@1 &4: I think that the problem with estrogen mimics is that while they bind to estrogen receptors, they do not function as estrogen. So every receptor with a plugged in mimic does NOT do what it is supposed to do. This would seem to compare to a woman with LOW amounts of estrogen.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:10:04 +0000

@Mike Empyema: What makes you think that? Is beceacause we American women dress how we want & don’t stare at the ground every time a man walks by, mingle freely or do you just watch Snookie or Jerry Springer & think we all must act that way. What yr were you born in, 1855? I really hope you don’t live in the USA, have American kids or you don’t have a free spirited American Wife! Anyway I wonder if the reseachers took into account cultural notions as to how a little girl should act vs a little boy. No I don’t remember every day from birth, but I remember being raised differently from my brother 2 yrs older than me. If he made a bodily noise it’s funny! If I did that I’m not being a little lady! (I was told ladies only make bodily noises in the bathroom!) If he ran around like a nut on a rainy day, aww, he’s pent up! I did that: sit still like a lady! Never mind that little kids just donot care about our preconceived notions & have the same levels of energy. I don’t suggest we start referring to kids as its or raise them gender netural but cut the girls some slack! I’m lucky I didn’t buy into my familys beliefs & didn’t end up a an uptight prude who can’t think for herself or not run around like a nut on a rainy day!

By: Geack

Geack — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:28:44 +0000

@ Katherine – Exactly what I was thinking. If we’re worried that BPA mimics estrogen, that assumes that elevated “estrogen-like” activity in pregnant mothers is a problem. So someone should try to correlate estrogen levels and child behavior before we can assume BPA is an issue.

I also can’t place much faith in any study relying entirely on parents’ consistency in evaluating the behavior of three-year-olds – especially in such a small sample. Different people have pretty wildly varying interpretations of the same behavior in their kids – it would be difficult to design a questionnaire that eliminated this subjectivity. This article is a case where it would be VERY useful for the author to provide some info on the strength of the reported correlation. I know they linked to the study, but not all of us have the statistics background to interpret the raw data.

By: Mike Empyema

Mike Empyema — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:14:46 +0000

American women are behavioral monstrosities. Do a BPA study in the Philippines, Russia, China, the Middle East… or Utah, or Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

By: Josephine

Josephine — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:33:21 +0000

I remain of the conviction that many “behavioural problems” are more due to parenting than pre-natal chemical exposure of whatever kind. The correlation may simply be that people who eat canned food in significant amounts make poorer parents.

By: Katharine

Katharine — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:16:43 +0000

If BPA mimics estrogen and causes these behavioral problems, one supposes that women with sufficiently high levels of estrogen in their bloodstream would also have daughters with behavioral problems.