This Sept. 24, 2020, photo shows waste piled up at a city-run recycling center in the southwestern port city of Busan. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study found that Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical referred to as an environmental hormone, raises the obesity risk for adults.
BPA-based plastics are used to make food containers, water bottles, sports equipment, CDs and DVDs.
A research team from the Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital and the Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital analyzed the correlation between BPA density and obesity risk for 10,021 adult men and women who participated in the second (2012-2014) and third (2015-2017) National Environmental Health Survey.
The research team divided the participants into four groups by the density of BPA in their urine and analyzed each group’s obesity risk.
The obesity risk for the group with the highest BPA density increased by 7 percent for men and 20 percent for women compared to the lowest BPA density group.
The research team concluded that increased exposure to BPA contributes to a higher obesity risk for both men and women, adding that by gender, women showed a stronger correlation than men.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
