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Abstract
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have received widespread attention over the years due to their deleterious effects on human health. Bisphenol A (BPA) - a monomer used globally in producing polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, is a prototypic EDC that has received widespread attention due to its estrogenic activity. BPA has been detected in human serum, urine, amniotic fluid, placenta tissues, and umbilical cord blood. Its presence in the human population has been ascribed to consuming BPA-contaminated food due to its migration from polycarbonate plastics. However, little is known about the inimical health hazard of BPA migrating from polycarbonate bottles into food or drinks in Nigeria and how temperature and storage duration can influence its migration into any contact media. To address this problem, we scrutinized the effect of storage time and temperature on BPA migration from 3 selected polycarbonate water bottles and a brand of polycarbonate baby feeding bottles into a mixture of methanol and water in Makurdi, Nigeria, using the UV-Visible spectrophotometric method. We measured detectable levels of BPA right from day 1 at room temperature, suggesting a positive correlation between BPA release and residual BPA in the PC bottles. The amount of BPA migrated was in the range of (0.030 ± 0.012) ng/mL (day 1 at room temperature) to (5.620 ± 0.650) ng/mL (day 10 at 60 °C) for the 3 brands of polycarbonate feeding bottles and (0.080 ± 0.010) ng/mL (day 1 at room temperature) to (4.300 ± 0.100) ng/mL (day 10 at 60 °C) for a brand of polycarbonate water bottles studied. Both temperature and duration of storage generously influenced the migration of BPA exponentially. However, our study identified temperature as the dominant significant factor that enhanced the migration of BPA from PC bottles into the water. Therefore, it is safer for consumers to store foods in BPA-free bottles to avert health risks related to ingestion of BPA.
