This past Thursday (May 19) the Enviornmental Defense Fund (EDF), Washington. D.C., USA, noted on the group's website that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was accepting public comment on a food additive petition asking the agency to reconsider the safety of 30 possibly toxic chemicals known as ortho-phthalates, which are used as additives in food packaging and handling materials. The potential toxic chemical application in the fast food market, subject of a new study, includes certain forest products from cellophane to paperboard and food product wrapping papers. 

The announcement, published in the May 20 edition of Federal Register (College Park, Md.), comes shortly after a new study by Dr. Ami Zota published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institution of Environmental Health Sciences (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) found that individuals who consume large amounts of fast food have higher levels of exposure to two of the most commonly-used phthalates—diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and diisononyl phthtlate (DiNP). The EDF stated that because the study was about fast food, final food packaging is less likely to be a major source than pre-sale food handling equipment,.

The Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) study added more urgency to the petition filed by EDF and allies, which prompted this past week's FDA notice.

Ortho-phthalates are a class of chemically- and pharmacologically-related industrial substances; 30 of them have FDA-approved uses as plasticizers, binders, coating agents, defoamers, gasket closures, and slimicide agents in food packaging materials and processing equipment. Found in cellophane, paper, and paperboard, as well as plastics that come in contact with food, they can leach into the food.

Studies have linked ortho-phthalates exposure to a variety of reproductive and developmental problems, and some are known endocrine disruptors. If the physiologically undesirable and/or toxic effects of some of these chemicals are confirmed, the pulp, paper, and plastic industries involved in creating food handling products for fast food could be increasingly motivated to find new coating alternatives in this sector.