BPA is a common material used in receipt papers, plastic containers, and canned goods. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Recent studies have shown that Bisphenol A (BPA), an environmentally harmful substance, is related to emotional behavior problems such as excessive behavior, anxiety, and depression during childhood, and lack of attention.
BPA is a common material used in receipt papers, plastic containers, and canned goods, and is known to consist of environmental hormones that interfere with hormonal action as they are similar in structure to estrogen, a female hormone.
The Dankook University Hospital’s Environmental Health Center measured the concentration of BPA, which is released into the urine, among 195 children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 249 normal children.
The data showed that BPA’s high-concentration exposed group had up to 2.75 times higher rates of ADHD than those exposed to low-concentration.
Even in the characteristics of emotions and behavior, high-concentration exposed groups had significantly more difficulty dealing with problems such as excessive behavior, aggression, anxiety and depression than low-concentration exposed groups.
These groups also performed worse on attention-oriented tasks, the center explained.
Professor Kim Kyung-min of Dankook University said, however, “We should be wary of the fact that BPA is being seen as a factor that causes negative consequences of children’s emotional and behavioral behavior.”
“Since brain development in children can be determined by the interaction of various genetic and environmental factors, further research on the effects of exposure of BPA on children’s emotions, behavior and cognitive functions is needed in the future,” he explained.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
