Environmental Health News calls for reducing public’s exposure to toxic chemicals within food packaging, processed foods; cites studies linking COVID-19 death risk to existing chronic conditions, calls out chemicals as exacerbating the problem
COVID-19 to not delay EU single-use plastic directive
Industry association request to delay pending restrictions denied by European Commission; member states still expected to implement directive into national laws by original deadline
EFSA: New safe liquid absorber
EFSA finds liquid absorber based on crosslinked polyacrylic acid and sodium salt safe for food contact; does not exceed migration limit
Opinion: EDC decision matrix not suitable
CHEM Trust analyzes “option 4b” to identify EDCs as proposed by German risk assessment institute and considers method as not adequate to set EDC criteria
Two active substances authorized for food contact
EFSA authorizes citric acid and sodium hydrogen carbonate as carbon dioxide generators in food packaging
Third roundtable meeting on endocrine disruptors
EDC roadmap, impact assessment, public consultation and on-going studies discussed by members of the European Commission and Parliament
ECHA survey identifies drivers and barriers of chemical substitution
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) publishes report on motivations for companies to substitute hazardous chemicals; greatest drivers found to be regulatory restrictions under REACH, customer demand, internal sustainability strategies
Long-term migration from polyester coating
Scientists analyze long-term migration from polyester can coating, find hydrolysis of oligomers after long storage; modification of testing protocols suggested
Stakeholders criticize labeling, terminology of plastic packaging
Greenpeace report finds only 53% of all US material recovery facilities accept polypropylene products, argues they should therefore not be labeled and marketed to consumers as recyclable; bottled water association advocates against the term ‘single-use,’ concerned it confuses consumers and limits recycling
In vitro testing of paper and board FCMs
Scientists test paper and board FCMs in 8 in vitro bioassays; all 20 samples showed positive responses in at least one of the assays; chemicals in paper and board FCMs require further investigation to ensure safety