photo provideduniversity of cincinnatijoining in the rising tide of evidence that the pollutant bpa is a significant health risk, university of cincinnati researchers have found that the chemical damages the hearts of female mice when exposed to the same bpa levels that humans experience."what we found is that bpa may have some harmful effects on heart health that may be unique to women, relative to men," said scott belcher, who led the uc research team.belcher is a uc professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics. joining him in the fiveyear mouse study of bpa were principal research assistant robin gear and former uc postdoctoral fellow eric kendig.bpa is an acronym for bisphenol a, which is a chemical used in food packaging since the 1960s. it goes into plastic beverage bottles and metalcan coatings, and it&39s been found on the slick receipt paper from most stores. the food and drug administration has said that in certain amounts, bpa is safe.more scientists are studying bpa, and evidence is growing that bpa seeps from packaging into food. ingesting bpa can disrupt the human hormonal system. it&39s been banned in the manufacture of baby bottles and sippy cups.today, belcher and his team published a paper online in the prestigious journal endocrinology about the uc mouse study. belcher said that with the study, "we were looking to see whether bpa is acting as an endocrine disrupter on the normal activity of heart function."mice were exposed to different doses of bpa in their food, and belcher said all the doses were below the fda&39s recommended safe limit. changes in the control of heart rate and blood pressure were found in male and female mice.then researchers gave the mice a chemical agent to stress the heart. the results in female mice who ate bpa compared to female mice not exposed to bpa surprised even belcher. the hearts of the exposed female mice showed tissue and cell damage."we found a very striking increase in their sensitivity to damage from the stressor that is not seen in the unexposed mice," he said. "even at the lowest dose of bpa, we could detect those increases of damage. we see necrosis death of body tissue and high levels inflammation, and the heart is permanently damaged."belcher said the results were surprising because the hormone estrogen in female hearts guards against cell damage. "there is the potential that bpa to be contributing to worse outcomes in women who do have heart attacks," he said. 
