Hundreds of chemicals linked to breast cancer found in food packaging, alarming new study reveals
A shocking new study finds that nearly 200 chemicals linked to breast cancer are being used in food packaging, and worse yet, dozens of the carcinogens can find their way into the body.“There is strong evidence that 76 known or potential breast carcinogens from food contact materials recently purchased all over the world can be found in people,” Jane Muncke, co-author of the study and managing director and chief scientific officer at the Food Packaging Forum, a nonprofit foundation based in Zurich, told CNN this week.This revelation comes amid a sharp rise in cancer diagnoses among young people.
A January study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis found that breast cancer diagnoses have increased steadily in women under 50 over the last two decades.Muncke maintains, “Getting rid of these known or suspected carcinogens in our food supply is a huge opportunity for cancer prevention.” Silent Spring Institute — a scientific research organization focused on the link between chemicals, women’s health and breast cancer — published a list in 2007 of over 200 chemicals that can cause breast tumors in animals.
A list update earlier this year identified 921 possible carcinogens, including 642 chemicals believed to stimulate estrogen or progesterone production, known risk factors for breast cancer.“The fact that so many potential breast carcinogens are present in food packaging and can migrate into our food is just one example of how many chemicals we are unwittingly exposed to every day,” Jenny Kay, a research scientist at Silent Spring who coauthored the 2024 update, told CNN.Published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology, this latest study compares the Silent Spring database of known carcinogens for breast cancer to the Database on Food Contact Chemicals Monitored in Humans (FCChumon).Created by the Food Packaging Forum, FCChumon is a list of food contact chemicals that have been detected in human breast...