There was a great article in yesterday’s Washington Post on the potential health threat posed by cumulative exposures to the unregulated chemicals found in plastic food packaging, such as BPA and phthalates. I was really glad to see a major news outlet using its large readership to spread the word about what is becoming an increasingly problematic health concern.
The article points out that to the FDA, the issue is not so much whether these chemicals end up in food, but rather, whether the amount of a chemical that consumers might ingest as a result poses a “significant” health hazard. I’ve always had a problem with the government setting arbitrary standards. Shouldn’t our food just be toxin free? The article goes on to cite growing concern among experts that even low levels of exposure to certain plastic chemicals may cause hormone disruption and lead to serious health consequences:
Animal studies have found that exposing fetuses to doses of BPA below the FDA’s safety threshold can affect breast and prostate cells, brain structure and chemistry, and even later behavior.
According to Jane Muncke, a Swiss researcher who has reviewed decades’ worth of literature on chemicals used in packaging, at least 50 compounds with known or suspected endocrine-disrupting activity have been approved as food-contact materials.
“Some of those chemicals were approved back in the 1960s, and I think we’ve learned a few things about health since then,” says Thomas Neltner, director of a Pew Charitable Trusts project that examines how the FDA regulates food additives. “Unless someone in the FDA goes back and looks at those decisions in light of the scientific developments in the past 30 years, it’s pretty hard to say what is and isn’t safe in the food supply.”
FDA spokesman Doug Karas in an e-mail interview said that before approving new food-contact materials, the agency investigates the potential for hormonal disruption “when estimated exposures suggest a need.” But FDA officials don’t think the data on low-dose exposures prove a need to revise that 0.5 ppb exposure threshold or reassess substances that have already been approved.