The water test that found BPA and rewired how we make things

A river test in 1991 found bisphenol A in ordinary waterways, forcing scientists to ask how long BPA had been inside people and products.

The water test that found BPA and rewired how we make things

In this episode, we follow the discovery of bisphenol A in common rivers and trace how a lab curiosity from 1891 became a backbone of modern manufacturing. How did a compound once noted for weak estrogenic activity come to be produced at ten million tonnes per year and found in the water we drink?

Person: Aleksandr Dianin Person: Edward Charles Dodds Date: 1891 Date: 1991 Topic: bisphenol A

- In 1891 Aleksandr Dianin synthesized a new compound-later known as bisphenol A-and recorded it as a chemical curiosity. - In the early 1930s Edward Charles Dodds tested BPA and identified it as a xenoestrogen that could bind estrogen receptors. - In 1934 I.G. Farben linked BPA to epichlorohydrin to produce the precursor to epoxy resins used for coatings. - By 1958 companies including Bayer and General Electric began commercial polycarbonate production using BPA-derived polymers. - In 1991 environmental monitors detected BPA in ordinary river water far from chemical plants, prompting broad questions about its spread.

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