Alert on Links to Packets

CHEMICALS widely used in food packaging and dental materials may be helping to cause breast cancer.

Large quantities of the chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, are used in plastic food containers, the resins that line food cans and dental sealants.

Scientists found young female mice exposed to the oestrogen-like substances developed breast tissue that made them more likely to get cancer.

The team at Tufts University in Boston, Mass, believe it has alarming implications because the tissue was sensitive to oestrogen, which fuels most human breast tumours.

Prof Frederick vom Saal, of University of Missouri-Columbia, said everyone is probably “chronically exposed” to BPA. He said the findings were “of huge public concern”.

The report comes days after another US study found phthalates, widely used in plastics and cosmetics, were affecting the genital development of baby boys.