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Most of these plastic products contain bisphenol A. (Image: gallery) |
When do female mice behave like male mice? When they are exposed to a small amount of bisphenol A—a chemical that mimics the hormone estrogen. Notably, this chemical is found in most types of containers, cans, bottles, and food storage products.
Ana Soto and her colleagues at Tufts University in Boston conducted experiments by continuously administering bisphenol A to the tissues of pregnant or nursing mice. The result was that female offspring exhibited masculine traits.
The amount of bisphenol A administered to them was equivalent to the levels found in human urine samples at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.
Additionally, the research team noted that the female offspring exposed to this chemical had only half the number of neurons in the areas controlling reproductive cycles compared to normal, equivalent to the number of neurons in male mice. They also displayed more male-like behaviors in standard behavioral tests.
If this is also true for humans, it represents a potential disaster, as bisphenol A has long been warned against for its health risks, yet it continues to be widely used in children’s toys and plastic household items such as plates, cups, lunchboxes, containers, bottles, and beverage storage like milk, beer, and alcohol…
Meanwhile, Steven Hentges from the American Plastics Council in Arlington, Virginia, pointed out that humans can metabolize bisphenol A, while mice cannot because the chemical is injected directly into their tissues.
T. An
