Plastic is a hot topic in the news at the moment, and for good reason. Bottles from Bognor are turning up in the ocean on the other side of the world. Plastic is messing up our beautiful planet on an unprecedented scale. There are over 1 million plastic bottles bought around the world every minute - that's 1,440,000,000 plastic bottles every single day.

What’s bad for the planet may be bad for people too - micro plastics leaching into products are increasingly being linked to many serious health conditions.

BPA (bisphenol A) is a chemical that has been used to harden plastics for over 40 years. It's everywhere, and not just in the places you'd expect. As well as the obvious items like plastic bottles, BPA is also used as a protective lining in the packaging of many common foods and drinks.

The ESFA (European Food Safety Authority) and FDA (American Food and Drug Agency) both state that BPA exposure isn't a health concern, however this stance has attracted controversy. Critics claim that this stance relied heavily on two industry funded studies, and discounted 150 other reports that reached different conclusions. The FDA's decision was criticised by its own Science Board.

Recent testing indicates extremely high levels of BPA exposure in the U.S - in one study, 93% of more than 2500 urine samples tested positive for the chemical.

The controversy around plastics in the environment looks set to continue, and the issues around BPA and micro plastics may become more important to consumers from the perspective of their health.