Bisphenol A is easily one of the most controversial chemicals you're exposed to every day. The chemicals industry insists that BPA is safe in spite of all the independent research suggesting that it interferes with reproductive and metabolic hormones and that it may cause heart disease and some forms of cancer. The chemical is used in the linings of canned foods and in some types of clear, rigid plastics, and it lurks in thermal cash register receipts like the kind you get at ATMs and gas pumps. As a result, retail salespeople have abnormally high levels of BPA in their bodies because they handle them every day. One receipt manufacturer has already removed the chemical from its thermal receipts, owing to health concerns, and now, any receipt paper that still contains the chemical has been banned from Suffolk County on New York's Long Island. The first such ban of its kind in the country will go into effect in 2014 and is intended to protect the county's numerous retail employees.

Hear more about the ban in this video from CBS New York: