John Peterson Myers believes BPA may present a risk to unborn children.
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

John Peterson Myers, founder of Charlottesville-based Environmental Health Sciences and former Hook FaceTime subject, is at it again—telling CNN that a chemical used to line metal and plastic food and beverage containers, bisphenol-A, more commonly known as BPA, can increase the chance of diabetes and heart disease. More alarming, says Myers,  pregnant women who consume BPA may be putting their developing babies at risk.

“There are some indications it may concentrate in the fetus. It’s definitely not something the fetus is protected from,” says Myers, who penned an editorial about BPA in the the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2008. “There are several [health concerns about BPA], but for me the most worrisome relate to diabetes and heart disease, triggered in infancy or in the womb.”

In 1963, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proclaimed the chemical safe, but new research is prompting health official to take a second look.

Indeed, a January 2010 report from the FDA says “recent studies provide reason for some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.”

“I think it’s pretty serious,” Meyers told the Hook in 2008. “The levels [of exposure to BPA] in all Americans are above levels found to cause harm in animals.”