Chemicals in everyday products can make you obese

Washington: Researchers have claimed that the exposure a person has with chemicals that are found in everyday products can affect the amount of fat stored in his body.

Lead author Lei Yin said that phthalates are chemicals found in everything from plastic products to soap to nail polish and they give plastic its bendy stretch. But growing research shows that these chemicals could be harming people's health.

Yin added that phthalate exposure can be closely associated with the rise of different types of disease development.

Co-author John Yu Xiaozhong said that obesity is one of the big issues in humans now and of course genetic components can contribute to the development of obesity.

Researchers revealed that some phthalates have proven to cause reproductive toxicity at high levels of exposure, but the link between low-level exposure and BBP hadn't yet been thoroughly explored.

Although the findings cannot be directly generalised to the human population, researchers note the cells used during the research were mouse cells and a human is not a big mouse they do give an indication of a possible link between exposure to BBP and obesity, something that could affect human health.

The study appears in the journal Toxicology in Vitro.