Plastics components linked to allergies in kids

Exposure to phthalates -- compounds used in making plastics -- at levels commonly found indoors, appears to be associated with allergic symptoms in children, according to Swedish investigators.

"Although multiple factors likely are responsible for the increases in allergies and asthma that have been documented in developed countries over the past 30 years," the authors note in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, "it is striking that these increases have occurred during a period when plasticized products have become ubiquitous in the homes, schools, and workplaces of the developed world."

Reuters Health