This book serves as a comprehensive resource on toxicants that can be released from food packaging materials and household plastics. Chapters include sources and levels of chemical exposure, known and suspected health effects and the identification of data gaps with recommendations for further research. In addition, regulatory approaches and risk assessment challenges in the United States and Europe are discussed. Chapters cover both the more widely known chemicals that can migrate from food packaging (bisphenol A, perfluorinated chemicals), and household plastics (lead, phthalates, brominated flame retardants), as well as chemicals that are just entering use in food packaging (nanomaterials in polymer food packaging) and chemicals recently identified as migrating from food packaging to food stuffs (phthalates, benzophenones, antimony, methylnaphthalene and the alkylphenols nonylphenol and octylphenol). Chapters on phthalates and brominated flame retardants discuss challenges that arise with the use of replacement chemicals. The health effect sections of chapters have drawn on a wide variety of toxicological endpoints and recommend approaches to better assess toxicological risks in vulnerable human populations. Reflecting the global nature of our food supply and household consumer goods, contributions have been drawn from international experts. A wide range of scientists will find this book to be useful, including toxicologists, environmental health scientists, food scientists, and regulators.

A leading voice in public health policy and top environmental medicine scientist reveals the alarming truth about how hormone-disrupting chemicals are affecting our daily lives--and what we can do to protect ourselves and fight back. Lurking in our homes, hiding in our offices, and polluting the air we breathe is something sinister. Something we've turned a blind eye to for far too long. Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrician, professor, and world-renowned researcher, tells the story of how our everyday surroundings are making us sicker, fatter, and poorer. Dr. Trasande exposes the chemicals that disrupt our hormonal systems and damage our health in irreparable ways. He shows us where these chemicals hide--in our homes, our schools, at work, in our food, and countless other places we can't control--as well as the workings of policy that protects the continued use of these chemicals in our lives. Drawing on extensive research and expertise, he outlines dramatic studies and emerging evidence about the rapid increases in neurodevelopmental, metabolic, reproductive, and immunological diseases directly related to the hundreds of thousands of chemicals that we are exposed to every day. Unfortunately, nowhere is safe. But, thanks to Dr. Trasande's work on the topic, and his commitment to effecting change, this book can help. Through a blend of narrative, scientific detective work, and concrete information about the connections between chemicals and disease, he shows us what we can do to protect ourselves and our families in the short-term, and how we can help bring the change we deserve.

The migration of substances from packaging to food is a matter of concern for the food safety authorities, and packaging materials constitute a potential source of contaminants to which the consumer will be exposed to through their diet. A huge variety of substances can be present in packaging materials, which could consequently migrate into food and represent a risk to consumer health. Food Contamination by Packaging provides an overview of the main packaging contaminants including Bisphenol A, melamine, phthalates, alternative plasticisers, photoinitiators, perfluorochemicals, saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons (mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons) from mineral oils, other bisphenol-related compounds, nanoparticles, primary aromatic amines and nonintentionally added substances. The analytical techniques used for their determination are reviewed. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in universities and research institutions associated with food packaging and, in general, to the food safety sector.

Plastics are one of the major achievements of the twentieth century. Today, they permeate our daily lives in just about every way that you can imagine, and they in our lives to stay. Plastics play an important role in almost every aspect of our lives. Look around you and you’ll see that you are surrounded by things that are made with plastic: Furniture, Soda bottles, cell phones, cups and glasses, computers, credit cards, door knobs, car parts, toothbrushes, hair combs, pens, TVs and VCRs, CDs and DVDs. Every time you buy something at a store you get a plastic bag. Last year the U.S. produced over 100 billion plastic bags, and sold over 30 billion bottles of “spring water”. Most of them have ended up in landfills and will not decompose until, maybe, sometime in the next century. Of all the plastic items around, the most common are associated with our food and drink: plastic bottles, drinking cups, baby bottles, sippy cups. The list is long, and these objects that we so easily put up to our mouths are quite ubiquitous. We certainly take for granted, the unspoken assumption that all these items are safe for our use. With the plethora of plastics being manufactured today, there is one common ingredient that is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins in most plastics. It is called Bisphenol-A, or BPA, as it is more familiarly known. BPA is a carbon-based synthetic compound used in the making of clear, hard plastics that has been in use by the plastic industry for over 50 years. BPA has become the plastic’s industry miracle compound. It only has one problem; BPA does not behave itself well in the kitchen around food. While BPA has been regarded as safe for decades, recent research using sophisticated analytic techniques clearly show that accumulated and prolonged exposure to BPA can interfere with our endocrine system and cause a range of ill health consequences, including reproductive problems and cancer. This is the story of the alien in your kitchen as relates to a clear and plastic danger to your health.

This book describes how man-made litter, primarily plastic, has spread into the remotest parts of the oceans and covers all aspects of this pollution problem from the impacts on wildlife and human health to socio-economic and political issues. Marine litter is a prime threat to marine wildlife, habitats and food webs worldwide. The book illustrates how advanced technologies from deep-sea research, microbiology and mathematic modelling as well as classic beach litter counts by volunteers contributed to the broad awareness of marine litter as a problem of global significance. The authors summarise more than five decades of marine litter research, which receives growing attention after the recent discovery of great oceanic garbage patches and the ubiquity of microscopic plastic particles in marine organisms and habitats. In 16 chapters, authors from all over the world have created a universal view on the diverse field of marine litter pollution, the biological impacts, dedicated research activities, and the various national and international legislative efforts to combat this environmental problem. They recommend future research directions necessary for a comprehensive understanding of this environmental issue and the development of efficient management strategies. This book addresses scientists, and it provides a solid knowledge base for policy makers, NGOs, and the broader public.

An award-winning scientist, in this urgent, thought-provoking and meticulously researched book, shows how chemicals in the modern environment are changing--and endangering--human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale.

“This eloquent, elegant book thoughtfully plumbs the . . . consequences of our dependence on plastics” (The Boston Globe, A Best Nonfiction Book of 2011). From pacemakers to disposable bags, plastic built the modern world. But a century into our love affair, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy relationship. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this eye-opening book, we’re at a crisis point. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. We’re drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices. Freinkel tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: a comb, a chair, a Frisbee, an IV bag, a disposable lighter, a grocery bag, a soda bottle, and a credit card. With a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis, she sifts through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives. Her conclusion is severe, but not without hope. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love, hate, and can’t seem to live without. “When you write about something so ubiquitous as plastic, you must be prepared to write in several modes, and Freinkel rises to this task. . . . She manages to render the most dull chemical reaction into vigorous, breathless sentences.” —SF Gate “Freinkel’s smart, well-written analysis of this love-hate relationship is likely to make plastic lovers take pause, plastic haters reluctantly realize its value, and all of us understand the importance of individual action, political will, and technological innovation in weaning us off our addiction to synthetics.” —Publishers Weekly “A compulsively interesting story. Buy it (with cash).” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature “What a great read—rigorous, smart, inspiring, and as seductive as plastic itself.” —Karim Rashid, designer