I stumbled upon this creepy bit of news at Jewish World Review: Accidental discovery led to doubts about safety of plastic.
Something was wrong with the mice eggs.
In two separate labs at Case Western Reserve University, researchers noticed a sudden mini-epidemic of defective chromosomes in August 1998.
And no one could say why.
Was it the food? The water?
Human error in handling the eggs?
After some anxious detective work, with months of valuable research in jeopardy, genetics professor Patricia Hunt made a surprising discovery:
When someone used the wrong soap to clean the plastic mice cages, a chemical - bisphenol-A, the same chemical that is used to make baby bottles, dental sealants, and linings for food and beverage cans - leached out of the plastic.
In the five years since that discovery, industry has continued to make millions of pounds of BPA, even though, the Case Western researchers learned, studies beginning in 1997 had claimed it was linked to problems such as enlarged prostates and decreased fertility.
"The first thing I wanted to do was go down to my kitchen and throw out every bit of plastic I had in my house," Hunt said. "I thought, ‘What is this stuff still doing on the market?’ " [continue]
Doesn't this make you want to go buy a bunch of glass containers?
Related:
Compound in plastic bottles causes abnormal pregnancies in mice - Case Western Reserve
Geneticists Find Component of Common Plastic Bottles Causes Abnormal Pregnancies in Mice
Common plastic ingredient linked to birth defects
Component in plastic bottles found to cause abnormal pregnancies in mice