Do Chemicals in Food Cause Health Risks?

Epidemiology indicates some negative trends in global health that have to do with our endocrine system. And the general impression is that we need to be concerned and act fast or the trends will become consolidated and lead to serious problems.

We are fully justified to invest in extensive research to identify some of the cause(s). Chemi-Joe and Research-Ann, our scientific avatars, will be the main subjects involved.

The epidemiology data suggest that the global health issues that we mentioned cannot be simply explained as the consequence of personal choices, or casual events or climate changes! There is clearly more: there must be specific causes, perhaps difficult to find, perhaps that will require other approaches, but we should continue to investigate.

Do Chemicals in Food Cause Health Risks?

Our avatars Research-Ann and Chemi-Joe ask this quesion:

Well, biology research tell us that is it highly possible, and in some cases have been directly demonstrated using cell and animal tests.

Amount of Chemicals in Food is Minimal

On the other side, to avoid alarmism, we should consider that the amount from FCM found in foods/drinks or free in the environment are really minimal.

Our avatar Opinio-Neil may ask the following question:

Indeed, we are talking about nano-molar o pico-molar concentrations, that mean 10-9 to 10-12 molar concentration (about 1 part in 10 billions). The first impression is that such amounts are far below toxic or bioactive concentrations and most likely will do nearly nothing bad to us. It is that word nearly that we are addressing here. Since our internal hormones also work with “nearly undetectable” doses, but we know that they are very effective, the concern appears to be more than legitimate.

Health Risks From Chemicals in Food are Debatable

Another key point that we should all consider is: at the moment an exact causal link between the use of specific FCM, the migration of certain chemicals into foods/drinks, the actual human exposure to EDCs from when we are embryos in our mothers’ womb until adulthood, with evident long-term population health problems, are still debated. There is no easy answer or solution to this. Although all evidences are there and the experts insist that we should take actions and prevent worsening of the health issues (see again the interview with Starowicz, Bovolin and Schilirò), not enough is being done and the trends continue.

Logically, on the opposite side, those that have interest in minimizing the issue will legitimately claim that: “Evidence is not fully there and data are not yet conclusive to justify hard measures against the use of chemicals in packaging”.

The debate continues.