\n<\/p>\n
Toxic chemicals in packaging<\/a>\u00a0are indeed a thing, and while that\u2019s been recognized as a\u00a0certifiable thing<\/em>\u00a0we should watch out for, researchers are starting to get a better idea of just what happens with some of those toxic chemicals. In a study published on Monday in the\u00a0Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology<\/a>, researchers found that around 3,600 chemicals can leach into food during packaging and manufacturing and end up in our bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Researchers compared over 14,000 food contact chemicals (FCC) against five biomonitoring programs and three different metabolome\/exposome databases to gather the results. By examining high-priority FCCs often found in materials that come in contact with food\u2014like packaging\u2014they discovered their presence in human bodies. Of the 14,000 known FCCs, the study found that 25% of them were found in humans. Eighty of those FCCs were of particular concern as they have hazardous properties and have been connected to cancers, endocrine-disrupting properties, fetal abnormalities, and other diseases.<\/p>\n What\u2019s especially alarming is that these chemicals aren\u2019t just linked to plastic packaging\u2014we already know about the toxicity of things like\u00a0BPA<\/a>\u00a0(bisphenol A), and consumers are plenty aware that\u00a0plastic<\/a>\u00a0deserves its fair share of scrutiny. But what they might not know is that they can even find it in recycled paper. Newspapers, for instance, aren\u2019t made with food-grade inks. When they get recycled, they all go into the same pulpy mix with other pieces of cardboard and paper packaging. So, those non-food grade inks end up in the recycled material, and\u00a0the chemicals from those inks can migrate into food<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n