Concerns over the chemical normally relate to dietary exposure so food is the most scrutinized, but the EU body says this is the first time it also considered exposure to BPA from non-dietary sources, such as cosmetics.
"BPA poses no health risk to consumers because current exposure to the chemical is too low to cause harm," says EFSA.
However, EFSA expert Dr Trine Husøy notes: “There is a lack of supporting data on dermal exposure – for example, how much BPA the body absorbs through skin by touching thermal paper – which really increases the uncertainty of estimates from thermal paper and cosmetics”.
Minute traces in cosmetics
BPA was banned from use as an ingredient in cosmetic products in 2006; however, cosmetics legislation acknowledges that unavoidable traces might be found to be present in products owing to their other possible uses, in this case in the packaging.
The law requires that any such traces must be taken into account by the safety assessment, and that their presence must not constitute a risk of harm to human health.
A statement from the Cosmetics Toiletry and Perfumery Asociation says: “The minute traces of bisphenol A that might be detected in some cosmetic products, after migration from packaging for example, do not constitute any risk of harm to human health.”
The chemical is used in cosmetics to prevent packaging from corroding, protecting the contents from contamination, as well as being used as a building block for some plastics.
Recommended exposure levels slashed
In making its announcement, EFSA also cut recommended exposure levels to BPA as tests to detect it become more refined, mainly affecting food.
EFSA says that new data and methods led it to reduce the safe level, or tolerable daily intake, of BPA in food from 50 micrograms (0.05 milligrams) per kilogram of body weight per day to four micrograms.
But it added that the highest estimates for dietary exposure and for exposure from a combination of sources such as diet, cosmetics and thermal paper, are three to five times lower than the new recommended daily intake level.
BPA has been banned for use in baby bottles by the European Union, the United States and Canada, and from all food containers in France from the beginning of this year.
EFSA said that in calculating its tolerable daily intake levels for BPA, in factored in the potential effects of the compound on mammary glands as well as the reproductive, metabolic, neuro-behavioural and immune systems.