Addressing systemic problems with exposure assessments to protect the public’s health

Table 3 Estimates of BPA in thermal paper from published studies versus values used in exposure assessments by the European Food Safety Authority

	Liao & Kannan [104]	Geens et al. [105]	Zalko et al. [103]	Demierre et al. [106]	Hormann et al.	Biedermann et al. [102]	Bernier & Vandenberg [100]	EFSA [99]
Concentration in thermal paper (μg/g)	211–8880	21,000			19,600–26,300	13,000
Transfer coefficient (ng/s)					1072–1838	21,522
Absorption fraction			46–65%	2.3–8.6%		27%		10%
Length of typical handling (sec)							690 ± 16	10 (typical) 46 (high)
Area of typical handling event (cm²)							14.15	2 (typical) 9.0 (high)
% individuals with abnormal handling							2%	Dismissed as irrelevant
Estimates of daily intake from thermal paper handling, adults only (μg/kg/day)	0.0175–1.3	0.0064					0.051–1484	0.059 (average) 0.542 (high)

Various parameters relevant to human exposures to BPA from the handling of thermal papers have been measured in different model systems and across studies (shown in the first seven columns). EFSA’s exposure assessment model is shown in gray. EFSA dismisses abnormal handling (e.g., children chewing on thermal paper) as irrelevant. Other parameters selected by EFSA (e.g., absorption fraction, length of typical handling time, area of typical handling event) differ from what has been observed in human populations; EFSA also does not report which concentrations of BPA measured in thermal paper were used in their estimates

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