Your french-fry container or pizza box may be delivering a dose of toxic chemicals with your meal. Those and many other types of food packages have stain-proof or grease-proof linings made with chemicals called PFCs that are linked in animal tests to cancer or reproductive harm.
California State Sen. Ellen M. Corbett has introduced a bill that would make California the first state to ban some PFCs in food packaging. The bill, sponsored by EWG, would prohibit more than trace amounts of two PFCs called PFOS and PFOA in any material used to package food, beginning in 2010. We're holding a news conference Tuesday in Sacramento to talk about why California should take leadership on this issue.
For decades, PFOA and PFOS have been used in packaging for fast-food sandwiches, french fries, pizza, baked goods, beverages and candy. Today they contaminate the entire planet, from Arctic polar bears to the blood of virtually every American. Federal health officials have detected the chemicals in 98 percent of people tested, and EWG found them in the umbilical cord blood of every one of 10 out of 10 newborn babies.
PFOA is considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a likely carcinogen and a chemical that induces breast tumors in animals. In addition, PFOA and PFOS have been linked to pregnancy problems that can include developmental complications.
EPA is pushing for a voluntary phaseout of some PFCs by 2015, but that’s too long to wait. PFOA and PFOS never break down, persisting in the environment indefinitely.
Consumers have the right to assume their food packaging is safe. The fact that Burger King and some other companies have already eliminated PFCs in packaging is proof that it can be done now.
If you live in California, show your support by e-mailing or writing your own legislators and asking them support Senate Bill 1313. Find the names of and links to your legislators here.