This interesting article appeared on Salon.com today (you may have to watch an ad in order to read the article, if you aren't a subscriber). It summarizes another article about how this chemical from plastic called Bisphenol A, which is apparently in our water supply, interferes with fetal development in a way that may be making people fat. Evidently the onset of the use of Bisphenol A in plastic manufacturing corresponds with the beginning of the so-called "obesity epidemic" in the US. Of course the timing could just be coincidental, but studies have shown that prenatal exposure to the chemical does cause rats to be fat (well, apparently the independent studies show this, though the studies funded by the chemical industry don't).
I was also really intrigued by people's comments on the Salon article. Some are pretty thoughtful, but there are a couple of really dumb ones, including someone who says basically, "I eat food out of plastic containers and I'm not fat, so this article is wrong." It's interesting to me because you might expect Salon readers to be more intelligent and/or open-minded than the average bear, and yet...
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