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Chemicals in Fast Food Wrappers Show Up in Human Blood
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada - Chemicals used to keep grease from leaking through fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food, being ingested by people and showing up as contaminants in blood, according to new research at the University of Toronto.
Chemicals used to keep grease from leaking through fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food, being ingested by people and showing up as contaminants in blood, according to new research at the University of Toronto. (photo by Flickr user permanently scatterbrained / eric molina)
The contaminants are perfluoroalkyls, stable, synthetic chemicals that repel oil, grease, and water. They are used in surface protection products such as carpet and clothing treatments and coating for paper and cardboard packaging.
Earlier research by University of Toronto environmental chemists Scott Mabury and Jessica D'eon, established in 2007 that the wrappers are a source of these chemicals in human blood. Their new study shows that perfluorinated chemicals can migrate from wrappers into food.
The specific chemicals studied are polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters, or PAPs, breakdown products of the perfluorinated carboxylic acids, or PFCAs, which are used in coating the food wrappers.
"We suspected that a major source of human PFCA exposure may be the consumption and metabolism of polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters, or PAPs," said D'eon, a graduate student in the University of Toronto's Department of Chemistry.
"PAPs are applied as greaseproofing agents to paper food contact packaging such as fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags," she explained.
In their latest study, D'eon and Mabury exposed rats to PAPs either orally or by injection and monitored for a three-week period to track the concentrations of the PAPs and PFCA metabolites in their blood.
The researchers used the PAP concentrations previously observed in human blood together with the PAP and PFCA concentrations observed in the rats to calculate human exposure to the chemical perflurooctanoic acid, PFOA.
"In this study we clearly demonstrate that the current use of PAPs in food contact applications does result in human exposure to PFCAs, including PFOA," said Mabury, the lead researcher and a professor in the university's Department of Chemistry.
Elevated levels of PFOA in blood have been associated with changes in sex hormones and cholesterol, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances. Exposure to PFOA also has resulted in early death and delayed development in mice and rat pups, the agency says.
Rats that ingested PFOA for a long time developed tumors. However, based on differences between rats and humans, scientists have not determined for certain whether this could also occur in humans, the agency says.
"We found the concentrations of PFOA from PAP metabolism to be significant and concluded that the metabolism of PAPs could be a major source of human exposure to PFOA, as well as other PFCAs," said Mabury.
"This discovery is important because we would like to control human chemical exposure, but this is only possible if we understand the source of this exposure," Mabury said.
"In addition," he said, "some try to locate the blame for human exposure on environmental contamination that resulted from past chemical use rather than the chemicals that are currently in production."
The study is published today in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," published by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
"We cannot tell whether PAPs are the sole source of human PFOA exposure or even the most important, but we can say unequivocally that PAPs are a source and the evidence from this study suggests this could be significant," Mabury said.
The researchers concluded that due to the long time that PFOA remains in human blood, even low-level PAP exposure could, over time, result in significant exposure to PFOA.
Although humans are exposed directly to PFCAs in food and dust, the University of Toronto researchers said that because of the way the human body processes these chemicals, "PAP exposure should be considered as a significant indirect source of human PFCA contamination."
Regulatory interest in human exposure to PAPs has been growing. Governments in Canada, the United States and Europe have signaled their intentions to begin extensive and longer-term monitoring programs for these chemicals.
Regulators have made three assumptions, said Mabury, releasing the results of his 2007 study. "That the chemicals wouldn't move off paper into food, they wouldn't become available to the body and the body wouldn't process them. They were wrong on all three counts."
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25 Comments so far
Show AllUnfood wrapped in chemicals. And the number one veggie consumed in the US is a french fried potato, which is a registered pesticide. I fear soylent green will soon be on the menu.
Soylent green is back on the menu! Opps, I meant the McRib, which is pretty close.
How about good, old-fashioned waxed paper?
Looks like it, according to EWG.
"...they are used as water and oil repellants in the treatment of fabrics and leather. Other uses include the production of waxed paper and the formulation of floor waxes..." Brand names mentioned: Scotchgard, Teflon, Stainmaster.
http://www.ewg.org/node/21715
So, it IS "both a floor was AND a dessert topping," as Chevy Chase once joked on SNL.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75ishimmer.phtml
Well played! Just think, it only took 30 years for that joke to come to fruition.
Wax is a chemical, nitwit.
Dear Mr. Christ -
Four words would have been sufficient to make your point.
A brief web search will lead you to many sites where insulting comments are highly valued. You may feel more at home, and be more appreciated, in such an environment.
Socialism Red Flag Alert!
This study is from socialist nationalized health care Canada. Surely this is propaganda from those curling-loving socialist conspirators north of the border.
Quick! Send the drones to zap away those liberal academia before they do harm to the economy with their socialist research.
McFry the bastards!
Another reason not to eat fast food.
Wait, the picture...that's an IN and OUT burger. They are delicious.
It ain't gonna hurt you!
Wild animals eat out of our garbage cans all the time; eating plastic wrappers and all!
They don't complain about getting sick!
I bet YOU let the dog eat off the floor, it's not going to kill the dog!
In fact, I bet people who eat burgers at fast food places are so hungry to get their fat fix, they accidentally eat the wrapper too!
Let's all get our system's attune to Dumpster Diving just in case... we too join the ranks!
~~~~~~~
I'm always amazed at how we expect all non-humans to eat and drink contamination, but a little contamination from fast food wrappers makes the news, as hazardous for humans.
"It ain't gonna hurt you!"
Birth defects and cancers don't exist. Just close your eyes when you drive past a hospital. Grave yards? What are those? Never heard of them.
So?
What is of the Europeans world that isn't basically anything more than their concocted scientific poisons out of Mr. Science Class?
The electricity the person used to write this Article is destroying the earth but they sure aren't going to give up their electricity or their B.S. about everything.
Sure isn't like any of your people are going to give up your money and stores to go out and live in the wilderness like the Tribes used to live upon Creator's Earth.
But I will give you at least credit for being bright enough not to crawl into a barrel of your nuclear waste. That would just be a slight tad faster than some chemicals on a fast food wrapper, Duh.
I am sure The Simpsons have covered this in an episode for your Simpson's World upon the earth.
Life is good. What an experience! it's always best to forgive.
So????
I'm sure what we need is more rocket fuel in breast milk ...
On the positive side, vile Domino's Pizza is now advertising that they
have REAL cheese on their pizzas -- a change for them!
How many Americans don't even understand that chemicals/pesticides/
petroleum products/fertilizers have replaced the nutrition in our foods
and their natural flavors?
How long has it taken to get the message out re processed corn syrup/
high fructose in so many of our foods?
One scorchingly hot day here in NJ, I went into a Dunkin' Donuts shop for
something cool and decided on a sherbert in a cone --
It was laden with artificial chemicals -- just sickening.
I can only conclude that American's taste buds must already be deadened --
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Perhaps the Europeans coming to our land and who are "Just Visiting" shouldn't have invented Rockets and Rocket fuel? Difficult to know isn't it, but they did and that is the way things are now in this land under Their Rule.
The Prophet of the Hopi foresaw the Gourd of Ashes, man made fire, The Europeans would invent in the 1940's, but the Hopi Prophet foresaw these things before Columbus ever sailed. A Hopi Prophet foresaw the arrival of men dressed liked turtles when eventually the Spanish arrived in their shiny shiny shiny armor.
Even though the Prophet of the Hopi foresaw the Gourd of Ashes the Hopi didn't set out to seek the type of worldly knowledge needed to invent such things and bring them upon the earth because the Hopi are a smart people.
I love the Hopi as my friends. I love my enemies, too.
I lived with a Hopi family on their Rez. The Prophet of the Hopi who foresaw the Gourd of Ashes, and any Hopi alive then are dead and gone, but their Prophecies live on even unto today. The Prophet of the Hopi who foresaw the arrival of the men dressed liked turtles and any Hopi alive then are dead and gone, but their prophecies live on even unto today.
You don't have to worry at all. This old Indian isn't going to lay any bets in Vegas the Europeans are going to Save the Earth. I didn't just get off the boat with Columbus just yesterday you know.
When Columbus sailed there wasn't any such place as NJ even though the land mass was there. There wasn't any Dunkin Donuts or Domino's Pizza in this land at that time. But there is now. Time sure flies when your having fun.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
Shadow,
Why does it make sense to post the same post over and over and over and over and over again?
You have posted the same post a hundred times. Yeah yeah yeah, you're not taking any bets in Vegas. Maybe you need a new joke.
Maybe you think hammering away at our heads will have some effect? Maybe you're testing the CD administrators to see how long they put up with it? Maybe you just like hearing the sound of your own voice?
Life is good. i forgive you. It's still boring repetition.
Maybe polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters is what's also repelling reality from the minds of right-wingers and teabaggers.
Well, only the smart and fit ones will be able to out-run the human wave of atrocities.....so much the better.
This is one reason why the proponents of "Free Markets" and the Libertarians are so opposed to GOVERNMENT funding of research.
Would Private Industry ever fund a study to demonstrate how the plastics and chemicals in our food supply are affecting the health of the population?
This GOVERNMENT funded study might well lead to REGULATIONS such as happened in Canada with BPA.
Governments regulating what is in our food supply is called "Socialism" and "an attack on freedom and liberty"
Wow! Another soon to be ":pre-existing BLOOD condition" that will be affecting whatever NEW health care package comes up.
I wonder if it's affected the Red Cross blood collections yet? Soon, unless a person has PAPs, the remaining clean blood will be considered polluted. Wow, again, a new RH factor for everybody!
I did read a bit some time ago about Americans who seemed to be growing plastic from within and it was coming out of their skin. I wonder if this PAPs chemical is a government program funded by Monsanto to turn us all into androids? Hmm, they don't eat though, do they? This could be a problem corporate food hijackers.
And we wonder why the population is becoming obese !!!!!
Time to end the bizarre economic paradigm that allows all chemicals until proven unsafe. Time to end this giant unscientific science experiment on human and all life.
Time to end colonialism. Nothing exists just to be colonized, taken, exploited. Everything is mysterious, interconnected, alive.
Humans are not separate from the mysterious interconnected fabric of life. Time for us to decolonize our minds, decolonize our lives and families and communities.
Once upon a time... this was understood. The root of the word 'human' is the same as the root of the word 'humus'. Long past time for us to be 'humble.' We are of the Earth.
Time for us to end corporate rule.
Amen.
It's amazing how long the list is of commercial chemicals and materials that have been found to be carcinogenic or otherwise toxic to humans are allowed to remain all over our shelves: teflon, titanium dioxide, aspartame, aluminum cookware -- the list goes on and on.
What sort of society discovers that what it is eating --or eating from-- is poison and yet keeps feeding it to its children?
Ban this shit. NOW. TODAY. BAN IT! PULL IT OFF THE SHELVES!
This entire culture is sick in body, mind and spirit.
As I bought my toasted and buttered bagel this morning, wrapped in its butter-proof paper I thought about this article. Perhaps I could ask that the bagel not be wrapped. But no doubt the cook's fingers are covered in the chemicals and possibly I would be getting more of the chemicals from the cook's fingers than from the paper anyway.
How long before there will be discussion of the health and safety of workers in the fast food industry because of these chemicals? Maybe they will need to wear plastic gloves to protect themselves from the wrappers? Or will the chemicals in the wrappers be changed to ones safer? I am glad that I am not working in the fast food industry currently. Imagine trying to tell your supervisor that the paper is not safe. I can imagine the result as just being the replacement of yet another worker in the fast food industry.