Dental sealants expose tens of millions of American children to the controversial chemical BPA, according to a new paper in the journal Pediatrics. It says that sealants contain derivatives of BPA, which metabolize to actual BPA when exposed to saliva. The exposure lasts up to three hours after the sealant is applied.
Sealants came into widespread use in the 1990s. The American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend them as an important way to prevent tooth and gum decay. A host of health problems are associated with decay. Dr. Philip Landrigan, one of the paper’s authors, agrees that those benefits outweigh the risk from BPA, but warns that doesn’t mean the chemical is safe.
“It is absolutely clear that bisphenol-A is a toxic chemical and an endocrine disruptor. We know this from studies in humans, and in animals,” says Landrigan, a pediatrician at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine who has spent decades studying the effects of chemicals on children.
BPA is used in many plastics and also widely used in the lining of metal cans. It has been under scrutiny for possible links to a variety of health problems, including heart disease in adults and developmental problems in young children. Because it mimics the hormone estrogen, some physicians say it can cause disruption at very small doses. Dr. Abby Fleisch of Children’s Hospital in Boston, the lead author of the Pediatrics paper, says it’s unclear how much BPA children generally absorb from the sealants...
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