The exposure of pregnant women to an industrial chemical used extensively in food cans and plastic water bottles has been linked to obesity in their offspring, according to a new study.

Columbia University researchers studying environmental hazards in low-income areas of the Big Apple tracked the presence of Bisphenol A (BPA) in 369 Dominican and black children in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx from the third trimester to age 7.

The kids exposed to higher levels of BPA in the womb had a higher percentage of body fat, the researchers found.

“We’re seeing an association between prenatal exposure to BPA and measures of obesity at age 7,” said Lori Hoepner, an investigator at Columbia’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health and co-author of the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

BPA is used in plastics and to prevent cans from corroding. In the human body, it blocks hormones, altering fat-cell development, the researchers said.

The American Chemistry Council slammed the study as alarmist — and wrong.

“The limited and inconsistent findings of this small-scale study do not show that prenatal exposure to BPA puts children ‘on a course to obesity,’ as the headline in the press release claims. Statistical associations are not the same as causation, in spite of cleverly worded headlines designed to imply otherwise,” said the ACC’s Steven G. Hentges.

“Human exposure to BPA has been well studied . . . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearly answers the question ‘Is BPA safe?’ with a single word: ‘Yes.,’” Hentges said.