On December 7, 2021, environmental rights organization Earthjustice announced that it has sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a federal court on behalf of eight civil society organizations over the agency’s failure to act on a 2016 petition to ban the use of phthalates in food packaging and processing materials. The FDA failed to respond within the legally mandated 180 day period on a set of earlier petitions from the organizations that “requested the revocation of all uses of this class of chemicals in food because the agency can no longer conclude that such use is safe” (FPF reported). Earthjustice writes that “despite decades of scientific studies linking phthalates to serious and irreversible health harms, FDA has continued to allow the use of more than two dozen phthalates in food packaging and processing materials.” The lawsuit is now demanding the FDA to issue a final decision regarding the originally submitted petition within 60 days.
Reference
Earthjustice (December 7, 2021). “Petition for Writ of Mandamus.” United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (pdf)
Read More
Erin Fitzgerald (December 7, 2021). “Groups Sue to Force FDA Decision on Petitions to Ban Phthalates in Food.” Earthjustice
Sharon Udasin (December 7, 2021). “Environmental groups sue FDA over hormone-disrupting phthalates.” The Hill
