Chemicals in food wrapping turn toxic

Quote: Mabury's group is now assessing the toxicity of the intermediates. The team also plans to study how widespread PAPS are in the environment.

clipped from www.sciencenews.org Chemicals that prevent grease from seeping through food packaging transform in rats into a suspected carcinogenic compound. This conversion could help explain why that compound—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)—shows up so widely in people's blood, say researchers. PFOA, used to manufacture nonstick cookware and rain gear, turns up in blood samples worldwide, reaching concentrations of 30 nanograms per milliliter or more. The chemical doesn't degrade, and people excrete it slowly. An advisory group to the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended classifying PFOA as a rodent carcinogen that may harm people. But scientists don't know the primary route by which PFOA gets into people A study in 2005 showed that similar compounds used in these applications can leach from microwave-popcorn packaging into the food. Not only can the body absorb PAPS, but the chemicals degrade into a potentially toxic compound "widely observed in the bloodstream," concludes Mabury.