Frederick Vom Saal, a research biologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is doing his darndest to get the FDA to notice that BPA and other endocrine disrupting chemicals are bad for us. A number of other countries have taken note of research by Vom Saal and colleagues and have restricted or banned the substance. But the U.S. regulators, by and large people from a different, and older, field of science (toxicology), aren’t listening.

The researchers found a positive correlation between increasingly high urine levels of BPA in pregnancy and worse behavior in their daughters. For every 10-fold increase in BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires. Oddly enough, no such correlation was found for sons.

Cashiers are particularly likely to get BPA exposure through the skin, handling paper receipts that are coated with the stuff as well as money that’s gotten a good dusting of it from the receipts. In fact, cashiers should wear gloves. That’s what a researcher from New York says.

The EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, is getting into the act now. It’s concerned that BPA is harming aquatic life. In an announcement, the agency cites several studies that have found BPA to have an impact on the growth, reproduction and development of aquatic organisms, even in tiny amounts.

A new study seems to show that BPA is safe. The study, e-published June 24 in the journal Toxicology Studies, combined the efforts of researchers from the CDC, the FDA, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and has gained praise as being “carefully designed.”

A researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Cheryl Rosenfeld, has pinpointed a fundamental flaw with previous studies on the dangers of bisphenyl A, or BPA, a widely used plastics additive that mimics estrogen. The study was published June 6 in the journal “Environmental Health Perspectives.”

Consumers’ Union, the group that publishes the popular Consumer Reports, wants the federal government to ban BPA in food and beverage containers, in order to protect all consumers–especially children.

Last month, 26 percent of Coca-cola shareholders expressed concern about BPA, asking the company to reveal its plans for the future concerning the chemical. But that wasn’t a large enough proportion for the top brass to do anything about it.

A study at Penn State University School of Medicine found a correlation between fetal exposure to BPA and wheezing in infants. BPA, you recall, is the false estrogen that is used in manufacturing clear plastic bottles, lining food and beverage cans, manufacturing thermal paper for receipts, and so on.

The FDA and the EPA are using outdated testing and review procedures for chemicals, according to scientists representing societies from eight fields who signed a letter in the journal Science.