Scientists Link Plastic Food Containers With Breast Cancer

A chemical widely used in food packaging may be a contributing factor to women developing breast cancer, scientists have suggested. The study links the compound to the development of hormone sensitive tissue in mice and has prompted environmental campaigners to call for far tighter regulation of such chemicals. Experiments at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA, have potentially worrying implications for human health since they suggest mammary glands of female mice grow in a way that makes them more likely to develop breast cancer and also to respond unusually to oestrogen, which fuels most breast cancer in humans. This is the second report in a week to raise concerns about widely used chemicals.