Perennial pollutants, bisphenols, phthalates, heavy metals, pesticides, volatile organic compounds… at least 3,601 chemical substances, some of them particularly dangerous to health, found in our bodies come from materials that come into contact with food, such as packaging or kitchen utensils.
This impressive count comes from a new study published Tuesday, September 17 in the Journal of exposure science and environmental epidemiology. She reports on “widespread human exposure to chemicals that come into contact with food [FCC pour food contact chemicals, en anglais] »A very underestimated exposure: 3,601 is twice as much as previously thought.
This new assessment is the result of an international collaboration between researchers from the Food Packaging Forum (a foundation based in Zurich), the Swiss Federal Institute of Water Science and Technology and the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne University (Detroit, United States).
To arrive at this estimate, the authors conducted a systematic review of food contact molecules that were monitored and detected in human biomonitoring studies. According to the scientific literature, just over 14,000 CCFs have been identified to date. They searched five biomonitoring programmes (in Europe, North America and South Korea) and three databases on the exposome (all lifetime exposures) and the metabolome (the set of metabolites found in a biological sample). Using the most frequently detected CCFs in food contact materials, they were able to map for the first time the available evidence of their presence in the body.
As a result, for about a quarter (3,601) of the 14,402 FCCs listed, researchers have demonstrated evidence of their presence in biological samples (blood, urine, serum, skin, plasma, etc.). What is even more worrying is that around 80 of these chemical compounds that come into contact with food belong to the category of substances of very high concern. According to the classification of the European Chemicals Agency, these are substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction or substances that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic.
“Not completely safe” materials
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