A new study finds up to 68 potentially hazardous "forever chemicals" in food packaging and equipment, and regulators may not know about many of them. The findings were published March 19 in Environmental Science & Technology.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals used to make products like nonstick cookware and water-resistant clothing. The bonds between carbon and fluorine atoms in PFAS are extremely strong, making them take hundreds or even thousands of years to break down.
Some PFAS have been linked to harmful health effects, including cancer, reproductive problems and immune system dysfunction.
"There are thousands of these chemicals out there, and we wanted to get a sense of how PFAS are being used in food packaging," says Birgit Geueke of the Swiss Food Packaging Forum.
研究人员发现，食品包装材料中普遍存在 68 种 PFAS 化学物质，其中 61 种是以前未知的。而在这 68 种 PFAS 中，只有 39 种经过了毒性测试。
其中一种已分析的物质全氟辛酸被归类为可能致癌物质，与睾丸癌和肾癌有关。虽然努力朝着正确的方向发展，但监管机构和制造商必须采取行动，以尽量减少食品包装中 PFAS 的使用。
