So, it's ruining our sleep patterns, turning us into anti-social hermits and now it's making us fat? Alright, it might be time to put all the technology in your house in a room, and lock the door forever.
Science has a lot to offer us, but sometimes when it giveth with one hand, it taketh away with the other. New research has shown that your smartphone might be making you fat, but not in the way that you think.
We immediately thought, ok, sure, we're spending more time plopped in front of the telly with one eye on Corrie and the other on Facebook, grabbing handful of crisps and slugging down Coke. But no, this is much worse.
Researchers at the University of Houston found that commonly used chemicals present in your phone as well as plenty of other things like your tablet, TV and games console, are possibly having an undesired effect on your waistline. All these things contain flame retardant chemicals to help cool down the chips within, and those compounds have been linked to weight gain.
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According to Mother Jones, the culprits are Tetrabromobisphoneol A (TBBPA) and tetrachlorobisphenol A (TCBPA) which can leech out of the devices and end up entering our system via the air we breathe. They are a form of bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to both weight gain and metabolic disorders.
The study looked at a group of zebrafish who were given low doses of the chemicals across 11 days, and given that they are transparent, scientists were able to note the buildup of fat around the organs and along their sides. The results showed that "the fish treated with these compounds became heavier and the ones that weren't were lighter".
Maria Bondesson, a research assistant professor of biology and biochemistry with the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling, stated that with the growing obesity problem, it was important to find out if the chemicals we come across in our everyday lives were causing us to gain wight: "Our goal is to find the worst ones and then replace them with safer alternatives".
That, to us, is truly horrid news. What other forms of nastiness are out there? Maybe it's time we headed to the woods, The Village style...
