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Research
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| Xenoestrogens Released from Lacquer Coatings in Food Cans
José Antonio Brotons, María Fátima Olea-Serrano, Mercedes Villalobos, Vicente Pedraza, and Nicolás Olea Laboratorio de Investigaciones Médicas, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain Abstract
We present data showing that some foods preserved in lacquer-coated cans and the liquid in them may acquire estrogenic activity. Hormonal activity was measured using the E-screen bioassay. The biological activity of vegetables packed in cans was a result of plastic monomers used in manufacturing the containers. The plastic monomer bisphenol-A, identified by mass spectrometry, was found as a contaminant not only in the liquid of the preserved vegetables but also in water autoclaved in the cans. The amount of bisphenol-A in the extracts accounted for all the hormonal activity measured. Although the presence of other xenoestrogens cannot be ruled out, it is apparent that all estrogenic activity in these cans was due to bisphenol-A leached from the lacquer coating. The use of plastic in food-packaging materials may require closer scrutiny to determine whether epoxy resins and polycarbonates contribute to human exposure to xenoestrogens. Key words: bisphenol-A, food containers, lacquer coating, xenoestrogens. Environ Health Perspect 103:608-612 (1995)
Address correspondence to N. Olea, Department of Radiology, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain. We gratefully acknowledge A.M. Soto and C. Sonnenschein (Tufts University, Boston) for providing MCF7 cells and for helpful discussions and Karen Shashok for improving the English of the manuscript. This work was supported by grant 94/1551 from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) , Spanish Ministry of Health. Received 31 October 1994 ; accepted 2 March 1995.
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