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FDA May Allow Some Toxic Chemicals to Be Added to Food Without Safety Review. Experts Are Alarmed
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to expand a controversial loophole to allow some of the world’s most toxic chemicals to be added directly to food without a safety review.
The “threshold of regulation” (TOR) exemption currently allows dangerous compounds to be used without review in food contact materials, such as packaging or processing equipment, if they are not carcinogenic, and are added at levels below 0.5 parts per billion (ppb).
But campaigners say many chemicals, especially hormone disruptors linked to brain damage and reproductive harm in children, are considered dangerous at levels far below 0.5ppb. Even in its limited form, the loophole has already raised alarm. One TOR exemption that allows the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate to be used in grain bags dramatically increased the amount of the compound found in kids’ cereal, which advocates say could cause brain damage.
Massachusetts Neighbors Want School’s Turf Field Shut Down Over PFAS Worries
Opposition to Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School’s new artificial turf field is building in Westminster, Massachusetts, even before the facility has opened.
Nearby residents argue the recycled plastic project is too close to private wells, a particularly sensitive issue in a town already concerned about PFAS contamination, CBS News reported.
A petition is circulating among residents near Monty Tech, who are also asking the school committee to stop the turf field project. It contains roughly 500,000 pounds of recycled plastic, according to CBS News.
Westminster resident Matt McGee has emerged as a leading critic, as his family depends on a well near the site. “Our well is 100 feet away from the materials that were put in this turf field,” McGee explained. The fight has split neighbors and the school community: homeowners want the project halted, while Monty Tech teams want to see the field in use. The field is still on track to open.
Major Panty Liner Brand Contained Cancer-Causing Agent; Users Struck by Disease: Suit
A major brand of panty liners has been accused of exposing hundreds of women to a cancer-causing chemical — with users claiming they suffered devastating health problems ranging from yeast infections to liver disease, a new lawsuit claims.
Carefree, a feminine hygiene brand once owned by Johnson & Johnson and now owned by Essity, allegedly contained PFOA, a known carcinogen, according to the suit, filed in LA County Superior Court.
PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, is a synthetic “forever chemical” belonging to a group of substances known as PFAS, which can persist in the environment and human body for years. Research has linked PFOA exposure to an increased risk of certain cancers, particularly kidney and testicular cancer, as well as to other serious health problems.
The plaintiffs claim they regularly wore Carefree panty liners in their underwear, leaving the products in “sustained contact” with “vulvar and perineal tissue.” “The tissue is vascular, and permeable, and what it absorbs enters the bloodstream directly,” the suit states.
North Carolina Cracked Down on ‘Forever Chemicals,’ but the Pollution Kept Moving
The public attention generated by the “Dark Waters” film did not mark an endpoint for PFAS concerns. New reporting indicates that, as legal and regulatory pressure increased, fluorochemical activity connected to the chemicals spread well beyond North Carolina.
For reporter Maia Siegel, the issue is personal since she spent her childhood drinking water from North Carolina’s Cape Fear River.
In an Instagram post, The Lever (@levernews) detailed Siegel’s reporting, which examines how businesses associated with PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often called “forever chemicals” — kept shifting production and waste to new locations as lawsuits and regulations intensified, with contamination later appearing elsewhere in the United States and abroad.
She discovered that Chemours contamination from an upstream plant had affected that river.
UH Research Links Marine Microplastics to Cancer Rates
University or Hawaii News reported:
Marine microplastic pollution is associated with higher rates of several cancers in U.S. coastal counties, according to University of Hawaiʻi research. The study was senior-authored by Shiwen “Sherlock” Li, assistant professor and Chin Sik and Hyun Sook Chung Endowed Chair in the UH Mānoa Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health’s Department of Public Health Sciences.
Researchers examined 89 coastal counties, representing about 54 million people, and compared marine microplastic pollution with cancer rates from 2013 to 2021. Pollution levels were estimated using beach sand and ocean samples collected in each county and available through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration database.
Counties with higher microplastic pollution tended to have higher rates of digestive, thyroid, prostate, lung and oral and throat cancers.
“It is important to note that these findings are preliminary evidence and require further investigation,” Li said. “However, this is one of the earliest human studies to connect microplastics and cancer at the national level and will provide guidance for future research on what to study specifically.”
