Non-stick chemicals common in fast food packaging: study

Yahoo – AFP, February 1, 2017

Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes
that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food,
US researchers said (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Miami (AFP) - Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food, US researchers said Wednesday.

The study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters tested more than 400 samples from 27 fast food chains in the United States.

Almost half of paper wrappers and 20 percent of paperboard samples -- such as boxes for fries and pizza -- contained fluorine, a marker for highly fluorinated chemicals used in stain-resistant carpets, non-stick cookware and waterproof outdoor apparel.

"Wrappers for Tex-Mex food, desserts and breads were the most likely to contain fluorine," said the report.

The study did not show any specific harm to human health from exposure to these chemicals -- known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) -- in food wrappers.

But researchers warned that exposure to some PFASs has been associated with cancer, thyroid disease, immune suppression, low birth weight, and decreased fertility according to prior studies.

"These chemicals have been linked with numerous health problems, so it's concerning that people are potentially exposed to them in food," said lead author Laurel Schaider, an environmental chemist at the Silent Spring Institute.

"Children are especially at risk for health effects because their developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals."

Six of the samples contained a long-chain PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, even though several major US manufacturers agreed to stopping using C8 compounds in food packaging due to health hazards, after a 2011 US Food and Drug Administration review.

Researchers also detected some shorter-chain PFAS compounds, which have been increasingly used as replacements for the longer chain PFASs.

"The replacement compounds are equally persistent and have not been shown to be safe for human health," said co-author Arlene Blum, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute.

"That's why we need to reduce the use of the entire class of highly fluorinated compounds. The good news is there are non-fluorinated alternatives available."

About one in three American kids eat fast food every day.

The United States began phasing out certain PFASs in 2000, but other countries still produce them, and they tend to linger in the environment for long periods after being discarded in landfills.

Prior studies have shown that substances in food packaging can migrate into food.

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Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.