Bisphenol A, a chemical which is used to harden plastic packaging for differentfoods and beverages, may cause fertility problems, a study suggests.

The study has been presented at the annual meeting of American Society for Reproductive Medicine and it concludes that Bisphenol A (BPA) can hurt the ability of embryos to attach to the uterus.

Dr. Richard J. Paulson, who is chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University Of Southern California Keck School Of Medicine, says: “It’s a real serious issue; we definitely need to find out the effects of environmental toxicants on human reproduction.”  It is worth mentioning that Dr. Richard wasn’t involved in the study.

A US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said that the agency was on mistake when it said that BPA posed no health risks. BPA is widely used in different plastic packaging for foods and beverages as well as in baby bottles.

In the study, Dr. Julie Lamb and team from the University of California, San Francisco, noted BPA levels in people undergoing their first cycle of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The researchers found that 41 women had measurable BPA levels.   And similarly, among 31 men, 81 percent had considerable levels of BPA.

The researchers discovered that there was a slight trend of not to become pregnant among women with measurable BPA levels.

But, Dr. Paulson says: “I don’t think this finding proves that BPA can affect the odds of successful in vitro fertilization.”