The National Research Council reported finding no proof that synthetic chemicals act on human bodies as "endocrine disrupters." The theory, widely popularized in a 1996 book called Our Stolen Future and endorsed by Vice President Al Gore, alleges that substances embedded in many plastic products such as plates and baby bottles cause cancer, infertility, and personality disorders by mimicking the natural female hormone, estrogen. The Environmental Protection Agency recently began a major initiative to test some 15,000 synthetic chemicals as possible endocrine disrupters, despite the NRC's inability to verify the underlying phenomenon.

In a related matter, Consumers Union is urging parents to throw out their plastic baby bottles because one study has suggested a substance called bisphenol-A (BPA) could cause damage to the reproductive systems of male mice born from pregnant mice who were fed minute amounts of BPA, and that traces could also leach from bottles containing heated formula, potentially leading to "developmental" disabilities in children. While Consumers Union noted that parents would have to return to using traditional glass bottles, they offered no comment on the comparative risk of handing a baby such a heavy, breakable object.

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