When parents choose pacifiers, many reach for products labeled “BPA-free,” trusting that the claim means what it says.
A 2026 German study in Environmental Science and Pollution Research tested that assumption—and found it wanting.
Researchers at LMU University Hospital in Munich analyzed seven commercially available pacifiers from Germany, China, and India using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD), a sensitive method for detecting trace amounts of chemicals.
Each pacifier was disassembled, and the shield (hard plastic disk) and teat (soft nipple) were tested separately to determine how much bisphenol A (BPA) each part might release under worst-case extraction conditions.
BPA is a widely used industrial chemical classified in Europe as toxic to reproduction and an endocrine disruptor—a substance that can interfere with the body’s hormone signaling.
Total BPA release ranged from 33 ng to more than 26,000 ng per pacifier.
The highest migration came from a product explicitly marketed as “BPA-free,” underscoring that such claims—currently voluntary and unregulated in the European Union—may not be independently verified.
Most BPA came from the shields rather than the teats, and even latex and silicone components released measurable amounts, likely from manufacturing contamination, colorants, or coatings.
The team evaluated these findings against the European Food Safety Authority’s newly revised tolerable daily intake (TDI) for BPA, set at 0.2 ng per kg of body weight per day—a threshold 20,000 times stricter than the 2015 guideline.
Under realistic-use assumptions (saliva volume, pacifier contact time, and oral surface area), even the lowest-migration pacifier exceeded the 2023 TDI by an estimated 25- to 50-fold for infants and toddlers, while the highest-migration product exceeded it by roughly 900- to 1,900-fold.
As lead study author Christof Högg notes, “even the lowest migration levels observed exceeded the latest EFSA TDI,” highlighting pacifiers as an additional—and previously underestimated— source of BPA exposure in a vulnerable developmental window.
While BPA has been banned in infant feeding bottles across the EU since 2011, its use in pacifiers remains legal in all member states except Austria.
The authors argue that the findings support harmonized EU-level regulation of pacifiers, similar to existing restrictions on bottles and toys, along with enforceable standards for “BPA-free” labeling backed by independent testing.
In the US, where BPA is restricted in baby bottles and sippy cups but not uniformly regulated in pacifiers, the data point toward a similar need for clearer safety standards and verifiable labeling.
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Adapted from: Herwanger L, Sternecker K, Kühnisch J, Reichl FX, Högg C. “Migration of bisphenol A from commercially available pacifiers: HPLC-FLD analysis and exposure assessment in infants and toddlers.” Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2026;33:16661676.
