A chemical present in many plastic bottles, can linings, and cash-register receipts may be causing behavioral problems in young girls. Harvard School of Public Health researchers tested more than 200 pregnant mothers in Ohio and found that those with high levels of bisphenol A, or BPA, were more likely than their peers to give birth to girls who became aggressive, hyperactive, anxious, and depressed by age 3. The children’s own BPA levels, though, didn’t seem to affect their behavior. “It’s possible that the brain is more vulnerable to the effects of BPA” in the womb than later, study author Joe Braun tells Time.com. Previous studies have shown that BPA can change how the female hormone estrogen affects developing fetuses, which may explain why the chemical impacts girls more than boys. Experts suggest that pregnant women limit their contact with BPA by not drinking from plastic bottles or eating food from cans whose plastic linings contain the chemical. But the FDA considers low levels of BPA safe, and the chemical is in so many common products that nearly all Americans have traces of it in their bodies. A
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - October 12, 2024Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - male magnetism, denial in a deluge, and more
-
5 conspiratorial cartoons about FEMACartoons Artists take on paper towel politics, king-sized conspiracies, and more
-
Take an island-hopping trip around BrittanyThe Week Recommends From neolithic monuments to colourful harbours, there is much to discover
-
Humans are near peak life expectancy, study findsSpeed Read Unless there is a transformative breakthrough in medical science, people on average will reach the age of 87
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mindSpeed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
-
Finger-prickin' good: Are simpler blood tests seeing new life years after Theranos' demise?Today's Big Question One Texas company is working to bring these tests back into the mainstream
-
10 recent scientific breakthroughsIn Depth From cell reparation to monkey communication
-
The difficult job of defining a speciesThe Explainer Though taxonomy is hundreds of years old, scientists are still striving to create a universal and easily understood system
-
Orangutan heals cut with medicinal plantSpeed Read A Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia has been self-medicating to heal a wound on his cheek
-
Why the Y chromosome is vanishing and what this means for the futureThe Explainer A new sex gene could be on the evolution pipeline
-
Antimatter isn't immune to gravity, landmark experiment confirmsSpeed Read Antimatter is the mysterious evil twin of matter, but new research proves they do have something fundamental in common
