Association between Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration and Obesity Prevalence in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Bisphenol A is an organic compound that serves as a building block of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Being the world's highest-volume chemicals in use today in the form of medical devices, water and infant bottles, food cans, kitchen utensils, water supply pipes, compact devices, etc., this compound—after gaining an access to the body of an individual by way of leaching into food and water supplies—acts as an obesogen and disrupts the body weight regulation by either promoting adipogenesis or triggering the differentiation of fibroblasts into adipocytes. The other adverse effects of bisphenol A include insulin resistance, adipocyte differentiation or aromatase-mediated transformation of androgen into estrogen, cardiovascular diseases, liver function abnormalities, alterations in the circulating thyroid hormone levels, association with diabetes and carcinogenic effect. Its other aspects on health individually as well as in combination with other chemicals are worth mentioning.