In a new article for the Huffington Post, Dr. Joseph Perrone asks Are Chemicals Really Costing Us Billions? He elaborates on a study in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology which claimed that endocrine disruptors cost the U.S. economy $340 billion each year. Spoiler Alert: they don’t.

The claim that the U.S. is throwing away billions due to low-level exposure to chemicals in everyday items is enough to give anyone pause. Unfortunately, the “groundbreaking” economic analysis relied upon the findings of previous studies suffering from small sample sizes, flawed methodology, illogical leaps, and assumptions

In pegging the cost of endocrine disruptors at $340 billion, the researchers first had to assume each chemical it examined was, in fact, an endocrine disruptor, despite such allegations being unsupported by science. That is to say, they took the illogical leap that endocrine interaction compelled particular health problems. And that’s a major assumption, considering most studies show weak correlations at dosages mirroring exposure in the general population.

You can read the full article on the Huffington Post website.