Bisphenol A (BPA) is widely used in plastic processing industry. A cross sectional study was conducted to measure BPA levels in the serum of workers as a biomarker of occupational exposure, investigate the thyroid hormone profile among BPA exposed workers, and identify the relation between occupational exposure to BPA and thyroid hormones during. Our data indicates that the studied workers had higher BPA level than that reported for the Egyptian general population, with median serum level of 15.6 ng/ml and ranged from 1.6 - 62.9 ng/ml while the interquartile range was 16.3 ng/ml, the highest concentration was among the workers of recycling followed by squeegees and PVC departments. As regards thyroid hormones, almost one third of the studied workers had abnormal TSH levels and 12.2% had abnormal T4 levels. According to TSH and T4 levels, 64.4% of the studied workers had normal thyroid function and 35.6% was suffering from subclinical hypothyroidism. There was no statistical significant correlation between BPA levels and subclinical hypothyroidism. However, our data reported a significant positive correlation between thyroid hormoneT3 and serum BPA concentrations. As agonist or antagonist, BPA could bind to the thyroid hormone receptors indicating that remarkable endocrine disruption.
Key words: Bisphenol A, Occupational exposure, Thyroid hormones, serum BPA
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