Breast Cancer, 200 Substances at Risk: They Are Also Hidden in Paper and Plastic

“Nearly 200 Breast Cancer-Raising Substances Hidden in Food Contact Materials. Plastic, paper or cardboard packaging, which can be the vehicle of “widespread exposure” to potentially carcinogenic compounds, “despite existing regulation”. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at the Food Packaging Forum (FPF), a non-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland. The authors of the analysis, published in ‘Frontiers in Toxicology’, launch a call for “the urgent need for stronger preventive measures to reduce these chemicals in everyday products”.

Many countries – Fpf experts explain – have legislation on food contact materials (FCMs), aimed at protecting consumers from exposure to hazardous chemicals, often specifically regulating genotoxic carcinogens. These substances should therefore not be common in food packaging, but the results of the work seem to suggest otherwise. The researchers examined FCMs purchased in recent years from highly regulated markets, including the EU and the US. By comparing a recent list of potential breast carcinogens, developed by scientists at the US Silent Spring Institute, with the FPF database on Migrating and Extractable Food Contact Chemicals (FccMigEx), the authors found 189 substances of concern for breast cancer in FCMs, including 143 in plastics and 89 in paper or cardboard.

Limiting the comparison to the most recent studies in the FccMigEx database (2020-2022), based on experiments that mimic the migration of chemicals under realistic conditions, the researchers found evidence of exposure to 76 suspected breast carcinogens from Fcm purchased worldwide, 61 of which (80%) were from plastics. For the authors, this indicates “a continued exposure of the global population to these chemicals under realistic conditions of use”.

‘Chronic and global exposure to potential carcinogens, prevention is urgent’

“This study is important,” said Jane Muncke, Managing Director of the Food Packaging Forum and co-author of the research, “because it demonstrates a huge opportunity to prevent human exposure to chemicals that cause breast cancer. The potential for cancer prevention through reduction of chemicals at risk in everyday life is underexplored and deserves much more attention.”

“Identifying the presence of these hazardous chemicals in food contact materials was made possible by our FccMigEx database, a resource that brings together valuable information from thousands of published scientific studies on chemicals in FCMs in one easily searchable place,” says Lindsey Parkinson, Data Scientist and Scientific Editor at FPF, and lead author of the study.

“Despite existing regulations aimed at limiting carcinogens in FCMs, the study highlights gaps in current regulatory frameworks. Our findings – warn the authors – indicate that chronic exposure of the entire population to suspected breast carcinogens from food contact materials is the norm and highlights an important, but currently underappreciated, prevention opportunity”.