GENDER-bending chemicals are turning up everywhere, even in common foods. Klaus Günther and his team at the Institute of Applied Physical Chemistry in Jülich, Germany, found nonylphenols, which mimic the female hormone oestrogen, in every product they tested, ranging from butter to pasta meals.
Using a technique called high-performance liquid chromatography, Günther found that the average German adult consumes 7.5 micrograms of nonylphenols each day. An infant fed purely on milk formula would consume 1.4 micrograms, seven times as much as if it was fed purely on breast milk (Environmental Science and Technology, DOI 10.1021/es010199v). Nonylphenols are used…
