Container and cleaning products linked to fertility issues

The simple takeaway container may be putting your future family at risk if you wish to have babies. 

A Melbourne expert has revealed takeaway containers and shampoo bottles could be harming fertility in men and women.

Reproductive biology expert at Melbourne University, Dr Mark Green, looked at how chemicals react to hormone systems which could have a negative impact on fertility.

Items including receipts, takeaway containers and the lining of tin cans can expose people to the harmful chemical.

Dr Green told ABC Radio Melbourne there are hundreds of chemicals used in all household items. 

‘Overall there’s probably about 800 chemicals throughout different products that are using through our industry,’ he said. 

There are three different groups of chemicals according to the researcher: BPA, parabens which are found in shampoo bottles and phthalates which are found in water bottles or takeaway containers. 

‘Over time if we’re consuming low levels of that, then it can be built up in our bodies,’ Dr Green told the radio station. 

‘We know that people who have high concentrations of these chemicals take longer to conceive, also those people that go into fertility clinics, they’re having even higher levels in their blood and reproductive tissues.’ 

The expert advising people to make small changes to avoid the chemicals but avoiding them completely is difficult because they are littered everywhere throughout society. 

Dr Green advises people to not heat takeaway food in the plastic takeaway containers or to drink from a plastic water bottle that has been sitting in the sun.     

Dr Mark Green told ABC Radio Melbourne there are about 800 chemicals in everyday life that could be harmful to fertility (stock image)