PLoS One

Is there an increased BPA toxicity risk for children with autism, ADHD?

April 1, 2024

Since epidemiological studies have shown associations with environmental pollutants, such as plasticizers, researchers from Rowan University and Rutgers University in the U.S. set out to determine if children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and ADHD would be able to detoxify from two common plastic compounds—Bisphenol-A (BPA) and Diethylhexyl Phthalate (DEHP)—as efficiently as neurotypical children.

They found that children with ASD or ADHD had trouble clearing both types of plastics, but only the reduction in efficiency of detoxification for BPA was statistically significant.

• Researchers studied three groups of children recruited from the clinics of Rutgers-NJ Medical School: 66 with autism, 46 with ADHD, and 37 neurotypical kids.
• In particular, they analyzed the process of glucuronidation, a chemical process the body uses to clear out toxins within the blood through urine.
• A urine specimen was collected from each child. Multiple mass spectrometric analyses including the complete metabolome were determined and used to derive values for the efficiency of glucuronidation for 12 varied glucuronidation pathways, including those for BPA and MEHP.
• Both fold differences and metabolome analyses showed that the three groups of children were metabolically different from each other.
• Of the 12 pathways examined, only the BPA and DEHP pathways discriminated between the three groups.
• Glucuronidation efficiencies for BPA were reduced by 11% for ASD (p = 0.020) and 17% for ADHD (p<0.001) compared to controls.
• DEHP, which is added to some plastics to make them flexible, showed similar, but not significant trends.

Source:

Stein TP, et al. (2023, September 1). PLoS One. Bisphenol-A and phthalate metabolism in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37703261/