Health News
Plastic Danger
June 1, 2006
Researchers in the U.S. say a chemical used in plastic products such as baby bottles and microwave cookware permanently altered genes in newborn lab rats.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Cincinnati. The study found the changes in the animals from exposure to the chemical, used in making hard, polycarbonate plastics, affect the development of prostate glands. Such glands could be precursors to the most common form of cancer in males.
Prostate cancer in men has gone up in the last 30 years, says the study whose findings were reported Thursday in the journal Cancer Research.
The researchers cautioned the study was done on rats, which sometimes react differently to chemicals than humans.