This Halloween, are plastic products coming up scary?

It's getting to be the time of year when young goblins rule the streets, but some everyday items may include more trick than treat. While officials this fall are on the lookout for stores stocking candy laced with the harmful chemical melamine, yard-sale shoppers might be wise to be wary of plastic sippy cups, regardless of festive pumpkin decor. Here's why, along with a short outline of the plastics controversy in recent months.

Last Friday, attorneys general from New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut wrote manufacturers requesting that they refrain from using a certain plastic, bisphenol A (BPA), in baby bottles and formula containers, reported the Associated Press. Aside from citing concern about BPA's risk to infants, the attorneys general referenced a preliminary study in a September Journal of the American Medical Association article linking high BPA levels in adults to heart disease and diabetes.

In contrast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared in August and again in September that adults and babies face no threat from plastic products with BPA. About 93% of adults tested in a national CDC survey showed traces of BPA in their urine.