Study Links Premature Breast Development to Phthalates
Published: 25 March 2009
Category: Packaging CONCERNS, Phthalates, Reproductive/Hormonal Changes, Studies/State & Federal Regulations
The “Toronto Sun” reports an alarming epidemic of premature breast development in girls as young as two years old had doctors befuddled in Puerto Rico and researchers have identified phthalates, a substance used to soften plastics, as a possible culprit. Girls with prematurely developing breasts were reportedly found to have seven times the amount of phthalates in their blood than the control group in a Puerto Rican study. Phthalates are just one of dozens of chemicals environmentalists and scientists have been scrutinizing recently as possible environmental toxins, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.