- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
More than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
More than 3,600 chemicals used in food packaging or preparation have been detected in human bodies, some of which are hazardous to health, while little is known about others, a study published on Tuesday said.
Around 100 of these chemicals are considered to be of "high concern" to human health, said lead study author Birgit Geueke from the Food Packaging Forum Foundation, a Zurich-based NGO.
Some of these chemicals are relatively well-studied and have already been found in human bodies, such as PFAS and bisphenol A -- both of which are the target of bans.
But little is known about the health effects of others, Geueke told AFP, calling for more research into how chemicals used in packaging end up being swallowed along with food.
The researchers had previously catalogued around 14,000 food contact chemicals (FCCs), which are capable of "migrating" into food from packaging made of plastic, paper, glass, metal or other materials.
They can also come from other parts of the food-making process, such as from conveyer belts or kitchen utensils.
The researchers then searched for these chemicals in existing biomonitoring databases, which track chemicals in human samples.
The team was expecting to find a few hundred FCCs, Geueke said. Instead, they were surprised to find 3,601 -- a quarter of all the known FCCs.
Geueke emphasised that this study could not show that all these chemicals necessarily ended up in bodies from food packaging, as "other exposure sources are possible".
Among the "high concern" chemicals were numerous PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, which have been detected in many parts of the human body in recent years and linked to a range of health problems.
Also detected was bisphenol A, a hormone-disrupting chemical used to make plastics that has already been banned from baby bottles in many countries.
Another hormone-disrupting chemical was phthalates, which has been linked to infertility.
Less is known about oligomers, which are also byproducts of plastic production.
"There is almost no evidence on the health effects of these chemicals," Geueke said.
- Reduce contact with packaging -
When it comes to toxicology, an old saying is that "the dose makes the poison".
A limitation of the study was that it could not say whether there were particularly high concentrations of any of the chemicals, Geueke acknowledged.
But she warned that these chemicals can interact with each other, pointing to a single sample that had up to 30 different PFAS.
Geueke recommended that people reduce their contact time with packaging -- and to avoid heating up food in the packaging it came in.
Duane Mellor, an expert in evidence-based medicine at the UK's Aston University and not involved in the research, praised the "very thorough piece of work".
"However, it does not cover how much of these chemicals we are exposed to and hints at other sources of these chemicals in our environment," he told AFP.
Rather than being "unduly alarmed", Mellor suggested that people "demand better data and minimise unnecessary exposure to chemicals which may ultimately impact our health".
Some of the chemicals are also already facing bans.
The European Union is in the final stages of banning the use of PFAS in food packaging. The EU has also proposed a similar ban for bisphenol A from the end of this year.
The study was published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.
O.Salvador--PC