WHAT AN EXCUSE.

Along with football, shopping is probably Husband dearest's least favourite past time. Actually, forget that last sentence - shopping is his least favourite pastime. Given a choice of going shopping or watching a football match, he'd choose the match every time.

Very good at food shopping (with a little help from being able to order on-line), it is clothes shopping and, the even more dreaded, shopping for shoes, he particularly dislikes.

Needless to say then, over the years he's come up with quite a few excuses so as to get out of braving the shops, he's never used this one though - at least not yet.

"I can't go shopping; it'll make me impotent".

Researchers have found that a chemical found on some till receipts contains enough of the hazardous substance BISPHENOL A (BPA) to suppress male hormones.

The compound, used to make ink visible on thermally sensitive paper, could be ingested when men handle receipts and then touch their mouths or handle food.

Professor Frank Sommer, 42, a Berlin-based urologist said "A substance like that could shift the balance of the sex hormones in men." - The Daily Telegraph.

Joking apart, BPA is a truly horrible chemical. Banned in Canada and three American states, it is linked to breast cancer, heart disease, hyperactivity and disorders associated with metabolism amongst other things.