The high cost of chemicals

Chronic diseases caused by exposure to widely used synthetic chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) are dramatically driving up health-care spending in the U.S., a study finds.

Newly published research from NYU Langone Medical Center estimated that each year, the use of BPA in food and beverage containers alone is responsible for $3 billion in health-care costs associated with childhood obesity and adult heart disease, according to The Huffington Post. Leonardo Trasande, the study’s author, said “[o]ne could argue [the estimate] is absurdly conservative,” because his research did not account for the costs of prostate and breast cancers, asthma, migraine headaches, reproductive disorders and behavioral problems—all of which have been linked to BPA exposure.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of BPA in children’s sippy cups and baby bottles, it remains in many products, including the inside lining of food cans.