Bisphenol A

A chemical widely found in food packaging and other plastics may cause severe genetic defects in embryos, at levels people are commonly exposed to, according to a scientific study published today. Laboratory experiments by geneticists at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio showed that bisphenol A disrupts the way that chromosomes align to produce the eggs of mice, leading to aneuploidy, which is the main cause of miscarriages and Down's syndrome in humans.