Think about health for a minute. How many people do you know in your family, circle of friends and colleagues from work who suffer from one of these medical conditions: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, reduced fertility both in men and women, obesity or allergies? Without knowing you my guess is  at least one, but probably there are even a few in that list where you – sadly – nodded your head. What these diseases have in common is that they are increasing in our society, also in the younger generation. But what do these diseases have to do with food packaging, you are asking yourself. This is what I will sketch out for you in this article. And I try to leave the nerdy science out (but if you need details and references please contact me).

What all these medical conditions have in common – apart from the fact that we can do without them – is that they are not caused by our genetic makeup. Or at least not only. These chronic diseases have been shown to have a strong environmental cause – the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat – play a huge role. And that's the message of hope here: These diseases are preventable at least in part if we get the science right and understand what brings them on. Newly emerging science is showing us that these diseases can be triggered in animals by a certain group of chemicals (un-)lovingly called endocrine disrupters. If you're hearing this term for the first time I suggest you read Box 1 for background information. In case you're not new to the world of environmental hormones you will know that they can interfere with our body's hormone signaling at very low doses. Think about this for a moment: We always thought the more chemical the more toxic. Now there's an add-on to that rule telling us "less is more". It's ground breaking and not easy to digest. But here's one example: Tamoxifen. This is a drug widely used to treat breast cancer. When patients first take it the doctor must make sure the dose is high enough, as only a high level of the pharmaceutical will do the job—and that is inhibiting the cancer cells' growth. However, at low doses tamoxifen is not simply inactive. A dose 1000 times below the cell growth inhibiting dose actually stimulates the cancer to grow. And so you would be achieving the exact same opposite of what you want. The same principle is also seen for non-drug chemicals like bisphenol A in breast cancer cell lines. This notoriously known compound is very widely used, also in food packaging.

But, bisphenol A is only one of many substances used in food packaging that wears the tag of endocrine disrupter – in fact in a recent scientific review I wrote I found that there are at least 50 chemicals legally used in food packaging showing the makings of endocrine disrupters. An important difference I want to point out here is that they have not been tested nearly as extensively as bisphenol A, meaning that there still is less scientific evidence for most of them. But what worries me about these 50 substances is this: We know from newly emerging science that mixtures can be more toxic than the individual chemicals by themselves are. This has come to be known as "something from nothing". It reflects toxicity caused by a cocktail of different compounds, all present at their individual "safe level". When they come together their individual effects add up to something.

If you have followed recent publications on chemicals being found in humans you will know that people already carry a background mixture of man-made chemicals within their bodies. We don't know what the consequences of this are and if there is a link to the increase in chronic disease. But what scientists are concerned of the most is the next generation: our children and grandchildren. From the first day of pregnancy the developing child is exposed to the chemicals in it's mother's body. And if those chemicals can disturb normal embryo development – which some of them have been shown to do in animal studies – then the new life is affected. Maybe the baby will be born looking normal and healthy but will develop a chronic condition like cancer or obesity later in life. Remember that young people are increasingly affected by such diseases. And there is evidence from mouse experiments that these can be caused by some chemicals that are present in food packaging. This is of concern especially for pregnant women and children; but also people suffering from cancers, allergies, obesity, cardiovascular and other diseases probably are better off limiting their intake of endocrine disrupting chemicals because we just do not know if they are safe.

So much for the new toxicology research that is shifting paradigms. What is it's relevance for food packaging? The purpose of food packaging is to keep food fresh by keeping the germs out, but also to market the product and to protect the food (of course the list is longer but just to name a few). Important efforts have been made in the past and are being made today to limit migration of chemicals from food packaging into food – but as we know today even low levels of migrants are of concern and especially if there is a mixture of them.

Being aware of these issues and understanding their implications will help you keep in touch with your customer's concerns. Because – similar to the debate on global warming – also if you don't believe it many of your customers do and increasingly will. This means they will shift their purchasing habits accordingly, offering new marketing possibilities. After all – we are what we eat, right?

Dr. Jane Muncke
Environmental Risk Assessment Specialist
Emhart Glass SA
Hinterbergstrasse 22
P.O. Box 2251
CH-6330 Cham
Switzerland
Tel. +41 41 749 42 93
mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.emhartglass.com

Box 1: Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

Endocrine disrupting chemicals are substances that can interfere with the body's own hormone signaling. These compounds can hijack hormone receptors in the cell and by doing so trigger genes to be switched on or off. They can also block certain enzymes, resulting in higher or lower levels of natural hormones. Hormones are crucial in how our body communicates between different organs (brain, ovary, testes etc) and body systems (immune system, fat storage system, etc.). If their function is tweaked, only at low levels, this can result in disease. Especially the developing and growing child is of concern.