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"We are faced with the seeming paradox of increased adiposity at both ends of the birth weight spectrum—higher BMI with higher birth weight and increased central obesity with lower birth weight" (Oken and Gillman, 2003). Thus prevention of childhood and adult obesity must start in utero.

Indeed, many synthetic chemicals are actually used to increase weight in animals.

This article provides fascinating examples of chemicals that have been tested for toxicity by standard tests that resulted in weight gain in the animals at lower doses than those that caused any obvious toxicity.

it has been shown that many of the environmental chemicals found in alligator plasma or eggs bind the alligator estrogen and/or progesterone receptors in vitro

Guillette et al. ( 1 ) suggested that the reproductive failure at Lake Apopka could have been related to general agricultural pollution and to a spill from a nearby pesticide manufacturing facility. From 1957 to 1981, the facility (Tower Chemical Co.) manufactured and stored both chlorinated and organophosphate insecticides as well as a copper-salt-based fungicide at a site 1.5 miles from Lake Apopka. Wastewater from the manufacturing process was discharged into an unlined pond, and chemicals were burned or buried on site. During a heavy rain in 1980, the percolation pond overflowed and acidic wastewater discharged into a marsh that drains into Lake Apopka. DDT and other chemicals contaminated the lake during this extensive spill.

ecause of the endocrine-disruptive potential of DDT's degradation products DDE and DDD, they have been the prime suspects in the reproductive abnormalities of the alligators