Did you know, according to University of Newcastle (UoN) researchers, a simple can of soft drink or takeaway container can increase one’s risk of being infertile?  

A local team of scientists from the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s (HMRI) Women’s Health program, led by Dr Jessie Sutherland, is looking into the impact of food and drink packaging toxicants on unexplained female fertility.  

Emerging evidence highlights the use of the chemical group bisphenols, used in food and beverage packaging, pose significant health risks, particularly for egg quality.

Dr Sutherland admitted it was an issue affecting thousands.

“Increasingly we’re seeing, in terms of infertility diagnoses, a lot of more unexplained cases” she said.

“In Australia, we’re witnessing about 30% of people going for infertility treatment having unexplained causes.

“One of the key links is through what we eat.”

Studies have shown the chemicals – commonly known as BPA, BPS and BPF – easily transfer into food material when making direct contact.

Aluminium soft drink cans and plastic food containers are the most prolific sources, with bisphenols used to increase strength and durability.

“They are called endocrine disrupting chemicals and what that essentially means is they interact with and dysregulate our normal hormonal system,” she said.

“All females are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, and they get exposed to everything the human body is exposed to.

“They are critical to the development of children and half of the genetic material within an egg then goes on to create an embryo.

“So, it’s not just impacting a woman’s eggs, but also her future children.”

In Australia, bisphenol contamination in food remains largely unregulated.  

Currently, the “safe” daily intake for BPA is 250,000-fold higher than the recommended level set for Europe.

Heating items within these containers are said to dramatically increase the transfer rate, especially with fatty and acidic foods, according to Dr Sutherland.

“There’s quite a lot already out there in relation to human egg health in particular,” she said.

“About 80-to-90% of those studies all found some detrimental impact of the use of bisphenol exposure to egg quality.

“The worrying thing is that the levels that a lot of these were looking at were levels of exposure deemed safe for consumption in Australia at the moment.”

Dr Sutherland and her team were awarded with a $1 million Medical Research Future Fund grant through the National Health & Medical Research Council for their project to investigate the impacts and advocate for changes in policy.

“One challenge with the work that’s been previously done is that a lot of it isn’t considered strong enough to influence changes in regulation,” she said.

“So, that’s something we really want to look more closely into at this project.”

Their research will be conducted through both lab-based models and real-world investigations.

“We’re following a cohort of women through their IVF journeys to see if there is a direct association between their bisphenol exposure levels and their IVF outcomes,” Dr Sutherland explained.

Based on their findings, they will create a public campaign to raise awareness of the harmful chemicals and health messaging.

“It is really completely impossible to avoid these substances,” she said.

“So, we just want to advocate for better regulations around this going forward.”

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