The first large-scale human study of a chemical widely used in plastic products, including baby bottles and tin can linings, found double the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and liver problems in people with the highest concentrations in their urine, British researchers reported Tuesday.

The findings confirm earlier results obtained in animals, increasing pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to limit use of the chemical Bisphenol A, commonly called BPA.

The chemical is the primary ingredient of polycarbonate plastics, which are found in myriad modern products, such DVDs, drinking bottles and lenses of sunglasses.

There have been growing concerns about its safety as studies in rodents have linked it to diabetes, brain damage, developmental abnormalities, pre-cancerous changes in the prostate and breast and a variety of other health problems.

About 7 billion pounds of the chemical are produced worldwide each year and studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that 93% of Americans have detectable levels of the chemical in their urine.

The new findings are published in this week’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., but were released early to coincide with an FDA hearing on BPA in Washington.

“This is a human study that really calls into question FDA’s assertion that BPA is safe,” said Dr. Anila Jacob of the Environmental Working Group, an activist group.

With studies stacking up against the chemical, here's what you need to know to lower your exposure

With yesterday's study linking bisphenol A--a chemical in hard plastics and the linings of food and beverage cans--to diabetes and heart disease, you may be wondering what you can do to minimize your exposure. The Environmental Working Group last year conducted an analysis of BPA in various canned foods and found the amount varies widely depending on the food. Condensed milk, for instance, has relatively little BPA, while infant formula has a lot more--about one fifth the safe dose limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. Of course, the potential risk also depends on how much you consume. Canned soda has less BPA per serving than some other foods, but if you're having a six pack a day...

Here are some good rules of thumb for reducing your intake of BPA.

Federal regulators today defended their assessment that a chemical widely used in plastic baby bottles and in food packaging is safe, even as the first major study of health effects in people linked it with possible risks for heart disease and diabetes.

“A margin of safety exists that is adequate to protect consumers, including infants and children, at the current levels of exposure,” Laura Tarantino, a senior Food and Drug Administration scientist, told an expert panel that has been asked for a second opinion on the agency’s assessment of bisphenol A or BPA.

However, a study released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a new concern about BPA. Because of the possible public health implications, the results “deserve scientific follow-up,” the study authors said. Using a health survey of nearly 1,500 adults, they found that those exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes.

But the study is preliminary, far from proof that the chemical caused the health problems. Two Dartmouth College analysts of medical research said it raises questions but provides no answers about whether the ubiquitous chemical is harmful.

FDA officials said they are not dismissing such findings, and conceded that further research is needed. “We recognize the need to resolve the concerning questions that have been raised,” said Tarantino. But the FDA is arguing that the studies with rats and mice it relied on for its assessment are more thorough than some of the human research that has raised doubts.

The JAMA article was released to coincide with the FDA scientific advisers’ hearing.

The Food and Drug Administration is considering the safety of bisphenol A at a meeting in Washington. New information could alter the FDA's preliminary conclusion that the agency is satisfied that current regulations are sufficient to protect the public.

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A new study could change the debate over the safety of bisphenol A, a compound found in many plastics.

It suggests that there is an association between higher exposures to BPA and the development of heart disease and diabetes.

The study, appearing in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, finds that adults with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were more than twice as likely to report having diabetes or heart disease — compared with adults with the lowest levels of the chemical in their urine.

Though it brings up new possible human health risks, the study, which is being discussed today at a meeting of the Food and Drug Administration's science advisory board, offers no conclusive answers. It does not prove a cause and effect between use of plastic food containers and the development of diabetes or heart disease.

"We don't have a lot of evidence in people about the effects of BPA. This is one of the first studies, and it finds something disturbing. It's suggesting there may be harm in adults, which we didn't really believe based on the animal studies," says David Schardt, a staff scientist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

A major study links a chemical used in many plastic products including baby bottles to human problems such as heart disease and diabetes, while U.S. regulators on Tuesday said they still believe it is safe.

The chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, is widely used in plastic food and beverage containers and in the coating of food cans.

Until now, environmental and consumer activists who have questioned the safety of BPA have relied on animal studies. But the study by British researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among 1,455 U.S. adults, those with the highest levels of BPA were more likely to have heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities than those with the lowest levels.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they would review the new findings, which were not taken into consideration when the agency issued a draft conclusion in August that BPA is safe at current exposure levels.

"We have confidence in the data that we've looked at and the data that we're relying on to say that the margin of safety is adequate," FDA official Laura Tarantino told reporters at a meeting of experts advising the agency on its BPA conclusions.

"There are things you can do if you choose to reduce your level of bisphenol A," Tarantino said. "But we have not recommended that anyone change their habits or change their use of any of these products because right now we don't have the evidence in front of us to suggest that people need to."

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A type of foldable soccer goal is being recalled after its maker, Regent Sports Corp., received reports of young children getting caught in the net. In one case, a toddler died after getting his head tangled.

The voluntary recall was expected to be announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It affects goals sold under the MacGregor and Mitre brand names that have nets with a 5-inch grid; those with a 4-inch grid are not included in the recall.

Last year in Texas, a 21-month-old boy tried to climb on one of the MacGregor nets from the back of the goal. He fell through the mesh, and the polyethylene cord contracted around his neck.

The toddler was in a fenced-in treeless backyard that contained only the soccer goal and carpet grass. By the time the mother realized what had happened, the cord around his neck was so tight, she was unable to pull his head back through.

She sent another child back into the house for a pair of scissors while she held her dying son's head, her hands straining at the cord.

"The opening that these nylon mesh nets have is simply too big," said Scott Wolfson of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "There needs to be a 4-inch space, but there's a 5-inch space."

Researchers who designed one experimental breast cancer vaccine say they have fine-tuned the process and come up with another that they hope will be more effective.

Their new vaccine delivers a cancer-fighting gene into cells, which then produce immune system proteins as well as tumor-destroying cells.

"In our own mind it is a very significant advance because we have put the gene into the cells in the body. The vaccine is produced by your own cells," Wei-Zen Wei of Wayne State University in Detroit, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. "It is made right in your body."

The vaccine eliminated tumors in mice from a type of cancer called HER2 positive cancer, they reported in the journal Cancer Research. HER2-positive cancers account for between 20 percent and 30 percent of breast cancers.

It even worked to eliminate HER2 tumors that had developed resistance to drugs designed to fight them, the said.

The HER2/neu protein is over-expressed, meaning it is over-active, in several tumors including breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer.

Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, an expensive antibody-based drug made by Genentech Inc, can treat these tumors. But many patients eventually acquire what is known as resistance and the tumors start growing again.

The Food and Drug Administration this week reopens the debate over a chemical used in many plastic products -- including baby bottles -- amid mixed messages on its safety from the U.S. government.

An FDA panel of outside experts on Tuesday was set to review the agency's draft report issued last month saying that bisphenol A, or BPA, is safe. Critics argue the FDA has ignored strong evidence in animal studies that BPA is harmful.

Government toxicologists at the U.S. National Institutes of Health on September 3 reiterated their view that BPA presents "some concern" for harmful effects on development of the prostate and brain and for behavioral changes in fetuses, infants and children.

BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from baby and water bottles to sports safety equipment and medical devices.

It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the coating in most food and beverage cans and in dental fillings.

People can consume BPA when it leaches out of plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside a container.

Environmental and consumer safety groups say studies show the chemical can interfere with how the body absorbs the hormone estrogen, which is key to the development of young bodies.

The NIH's National Toxicology Program, or NTP, became the first U.S. government agency to embrace health concerns regarding BPA. It followed up this draft report with a final report this month reiterating the concerns.

The FDA said the meeting would focus on these worries.

An Atlanta woman creates a unique artform with pregnant women's bellies.

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Yale School of Medicine researchers reported today that the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), a building block for polycarbonate plastics found in common household items, causes the loss of connections between brain cells. This synaptic loss may cause memory/learning impairments and depression, according to study results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Unlike previous studies that looked at the effect of BPA on rodents, the team examined the effects in a primate model. They also used lower levels of the chemical than in past studies. “Our goal was to more closely mimic the slow and continuous conditions under which humans would normally be exposed to BPA,” said study author Csaba Leranth, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and in Neurobiology at Yale. “As a result, this study is more indicative than past research of how BPA may actually affect humans.”

Over a 28-day period, Leranth and his team gave each primate 50 micrograms/kg of BPA per day, adjusted for body weight, the amount considered safe for human consumption by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The team also administered estradiol, the major form of hormonal estrogen that modulates nerve cell connections in the brain. Best known as one of the principal hormone products of the ovary, estrogen has also been shown in past studies to be synthesized in the brain, where it aids the development and function of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.