EU Commission opens public consultation on roadmap for reviewing coherence of EU measures on endocrine disrupting chemicals and their effectiveness for protecting public health and the environment; responses accepted until July 10, 2019
Scientists investigate chemicals in plant-based materials
Review summarizes chemicals present in and migrating from food contact articles made with wood, bamboo, and other plant-based materials; researchers identify and quantify 25 non-volatile compounds from bamboo, palm leaf, wood and wheat pulp dishes; tentatively identify 115 non-volatile chemicals in extracts from six plant fiber/plastic composites; detect phthalates in Brazilian dry foods in cellulose-based packaging
High throughput in vitro testing of BPA analogues
Scientists analyze estrogen- and androgen-like properties of BPA analogues using cell-based high throughput microscopy-employing tests; demonstrate anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties of TMBPF
In vitro testing of paper and board FCMs
Scientists test paper and board FCMs in 8 in vitro bioassays; all 20 samples showed positive responses in at least one of the assays; chemicals in paper and board FCMs require further investigation to ensure safety
PFAS research snapshot Q4 2023: presence, migration, health concerns, and regrettable substitution
Scientists detect two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in plastic food storage bags; study assesses PFAS in 119 single-use food packaging and tableware samples from around the world and detectes PFAS in 54%; two reviews raise awareness of PFAS impact on human liver health and safety issues connected with the PFAS substitutes – polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs); scientist calls for more research to assess combined environmental effect of microplastics and PFAS
Risk and hazard are not the same
In the context of chemicals the terms “risk” and “hazard” have very different meanings; blog post explains
Symposium on Food Contact Materials Safety
International Food Contact Materials Safety Symposium in Guangzhou, China brings together academic, industry, regulatory and civil society experts to discuss developments towards safer and sustainable packaging
ToMEx – An open access tool to explore microplastic toxicity
Microplastic experts publish Toxicity of Microplastics Explorer (ToMEx), a living database to quickly upload, assess, analyze, and visualize, microplastic toxicity data; aims to inform microplastic research and regulatory decisions on plastic pollution
Regulatory status of non-animal approaches
U.S. NAS workshop suggests comparing non-animal tests to human, not rodent, data, predicts alternatives to soon replace whole-animal tests; ECHA sees “long-way” until regulatory acceptance of alternatives for complex endpoints
Review discusses contaminants in canned food
Scientists summarize literature on chemicals in can-packaged food including metals, plastic-associated chemicals, and furans; report generally low contaminant levels but a lack of non-targeted and suspect screenings; find canning steps, internal and external factors to influence contaminant levels