October is breast cancer awareness month, a time to celebrate survivors and the accomplishments in the field of oncology to fight the disease, remember those lost, and to discuss what is known about the causes and ways to prevent breast cancer. One such prevention tactic is to lower exposure to certain environmental chemicals.
In September 2024, the Food Packaging Forum (FPF) published a peer-reviewed paper describing 189 food contact chemicals (FCCs) that are potential or confirmed breast carcinogens (FPF reported). The list was created by comparing version 2 of FPF’s Database on Migrating and Extractable FCCs (FCCmigex) with a list of chemicals with breast cancer inducing characteristics developed by the Silent Spring Institute (FPF reported). In March 2025, FPF published FCCmigex version 3, updated with data from studies on food contact materials and articles published between October 2022 and May 2024 (FPF reported). In honor of breast cancer awareness month, FPF has rerun the breast carcinogens analysis with the data available in FCCmigex v3.
The additional 20 months of published research on food contact materials and articles increased the list of FCCs that are potential breast carcinogens from 189 to 230; 178 of the potential breast carcinogens have been detected in food contact materials made of some type of plastic polymer (77%).
With this update, 1 in 4 (of 909 chemicals with CASRNs, 25.3%) of the Silent Spring Institute’s list of potential breast carcinogens are confirmed to be FCCs. The additional 41 potential breast carcinogens in food contact materials are especially noteworthy because all the research was published in the last few years, therefore, using food contact materials on the market today.
In the research paper published in September 2024, FPF defined a category of ‘highly relevant’ FCCs that are potential breast carcinogens. To be considered highly relevant, a potential breast carcinogen had to be detected in a migration study published since 2020. Migration studies are much closer to how a product is used in real life, compared to extraction studies which are a worse-case scenario.
With FCCmigex version 3, there are an additional 37 FCCs that fit these ‘highly relevant’ criteria, bringing the total to 113 FCCs detected in migration studies in recent years with the potential to, or confirmed to, induce breast carcinogenesis.
Most concerning, six additional FCCs that are confirmed mammary carcinogens in rodent models were added to the highly relevant list. The six FCCs, including the country in which they were recently measured in a migration study, which material(s) they were measured migrating from, and any Harmonized C&L CMR classifications are:
| Chemical and CASRN | Country of origin | Material | Harmonized C&L CMR classifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLYCIDYL METHACRYLATE, (CAS 106-91-2) | China | Plastic | Carcinogen 1B, Reprotoxic 1B, Mutagen 2 |
| o-DIANISIDINE, (CAS 119-90-4) | China | Polyamide (PA) | Carcinogen 1B |
| DIBENZO[A,H]ANTHRACENE, (CAS 53-70-3) | Croatia | Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) | Carcinogen 1B |
| ACETALALDEHYDE, (CAS 75-07-0) | Poland | Wood, paper & board, and polylactic acid (PLA) | Carcinogen 1B, Mutagen 2 |
| 4,4'-METHYLENEDI-o-TOLUIDINE, (CAS 838-88-0) | China | PA | Carcinogen 1B |
| METHYLEUGENOL, (CAS 93-15-2) | Unclear | Paper & board | No harmonized CMR classifications |
Both China and the European Union have regulations meant to ensure that chemicals harmful to health, especially genotoxic carcinogens, are not used in food contact materials. Yet, this analysis of recently published studies on food contact materials demonstrates that carcinogens are still present in food contact materials and the carcinogens can leave the material under normal use conditions.
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Parkinson, LV; Geueke, B; Muncke, J. (2024). “Potential mammary carcinogens used in food contact articles: Implications for policy, enforcement, and prevention.” Frontiers in Toxicology. DOI: 10.3389/ftox.2024.1440331
Kay, Jennifer E., et al. (2024). “Application of the key characteristics framework to identify potential breast carcinogens using publicly available in vivo, in vitro, and in silico data.” Environmental Health Perspectives. DOI 10.1289/EHP13233
Silent Spring Institute (January 10, 2024). “More than 900 chemicals, many found in consumer products and the environment, display breast-cancer causing traits.”
