Most popular products in the US contain a highly toxic chemical
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Chemical companies do not stop pressure on legislators to promote hazardous chemicals into the food industry
US Senator Frank Lautenberg introduced the Safer Chemicals Act, which requires manufacturers of chemicals to provide evidence of the safety of their products for domestic food production. It would seem - a legitimate demand, and yet so far the US laws of this issue have not touched.
A recent study of the most popular products from grocery stores showed that at least 50% of the samples of peanut butter and meat delicacies (including turkey meat, fish, beef, various fats) contain traces of a substance used in architectural construction as a suppressor of combustion in thermal insulation.
You ask, how did the building material fall into the composition of products on store shelves? Experts have suggested that HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane) can get into food through air, water or soil.
Arlene Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, commented on the data:
- These substances can migrate in the form of dust and eventually fall into the sewage. Then, draining into the seas, they penetrate into seafood, and when contaminated with sewage water for irrigation - in products grown in the fields, and cattle.
In fact, any use of these substances means a potential risk of contamination of food produced in the region.
Traces of HBCD antiprene have been found in most popular foods. According to EPA, this fire suppressant is distinguished by "high toxicity" for marine life, and also the ability to influence hormonal processes and reproductive function in humans. Once ingested, this chemical binds to fatty tissues and can persist in them for many years.
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