WHAT’SWHAT’S ININ THETHE PACKAGE?PACKAGE? Unveiling the Toxic Secrets of Food and Beverage Packaging A REPORT BY CLEAN WATER ACTION AND CLEAN WATER FUND • AUGUST 2016 AUTHORS • Audrey L. Thier Consultant WHAT’S • Miriam Gordon California Director, Clean Water Fund • Andria Ventura IN THE Toxics Program Manager, Clean Water Fund ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was made possible in part through PACKAGE? the generous support of the California Wellness Foundation and the Marisla Foundation. Thank you to Maricel V. Maffini and Tom Neltner Unveiling the for sharing their invaluable expertise on the food packaging regulatory structure and for their review. We also thank Avinash Kar, Debbie Raphael, and Toxic Secrets Caroline Cox for reviewing all or part of the report. of Food and Report Design: Emily Scott Beverage Packaging Clean Water Fund is a national 501(c)(3) research and education organization that has been promoting the public interest since 1978. Clean Water Fund supports protection of natural resources, with an emphasis on water quality and quantity issues. Clean Water Fund’s organizing has empowered citizen leaders, organizations and coalitions to improve conditions of hundreds of communities, and to strengthen policies at all levels of government. www.CleanWaterFund.org Clean Water Action is a national 501(c)(4) environmental organization with nearly one million members nationwide. Clean Water Action works for clean, safe and affordable drinking water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work. Clean Water Action has organized strong grassroots groups, © 2016 Clean Water Action/Clean Water Fund. coalitions, and campaigns to protect our environment, Clean Water Action requests that you provide health, economic well-being, and community quality of life. appropriate credit on all reprinted materials. www.CleanWaterAction.org TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... i INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................1 I. Food Packaging Chemicals Pose Significant Health Hazards .....................................................3 Endocrine Disruption ........................................................................................................................................3 Cancer .................................................................................................................................................................5 Cardiac Toxicity ..................................................................................................................................................5 Other Health Effects ..........................................................................................................................................5 II. Packaging Chemicals Contaminate Food and the Environment ...............................................6 Chemical Migration ...........................................................................................................................................6 Significant Presence in Humans ......................................................................................................................7 Food Consumption as Chemical Exposure Pathway .....................................................................................7 Non-Intentionally Added Substances ..............................................................................................................8 A Social Justice Issue .........................................................................................................................................8 Environmental Contamination and Wildlife Effects .......................................................................................9 III. Regulations Fail to Protect Public Health or the Environment ................................................11 Federal Food and Drug Administration .........................................................................................................12 Food Packaging Chemicals Regulations and Approvals by the Numbers ..................................................12 • Indirect Food Additives ............................................................................................................................13 • Threshold of Regulation ..........................................................................................................................13 • Food Contact Substance Notification .....................................................................................................13 • Generally Recognized as Safe .................................................................................................................14 Examples of Regulatory Failure ......................................................................................................................16 • Bisphenol A ..............................................................................................................................................16 • Phthalates ................................................................................................................................................17 • Fluorochemicals ......................................................................................................................................17 • Perchlorate ..............................................................................................................................................18 IV. Industry Influence and Political Failure ............................................................................................19 V. What’s in the Package is a Secret .........................................................................................................21 VI. California’s Limited Framework for Reducing Chemical Hazards from Packaging ..........23 California’s Laws Do Not Adequately Address Food Packaging Disclosure ...............................................24 VII. RECOMMENDATIONS: Advancing the Public’s Right To Know About Chemicals in Food and Beverage Packaging .........................................................................................................25 VIII. CONCLUSION: What’s in the Package is in our Food...and it’s a Secret .................................28 ENDNOTES .............................................................................................................................................................29 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BPA Bisphenol A BPB Bisphenol B BPE Bisphenol E Alternatives to BPA BPF Bisphenol F BPS Bisphenol S CAS Chemical Abstract Service CBI Confidential Business Information CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDER Center for Drug Evaluation and Research CEDI Cumulative Estimated Daily Intake DBP Dibutyl Phthalate DEHA Di (2-ethylhexyl) adipate DEHP Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate DiNP Diisononyl phthalate EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency FCM Food Contact Material FCS Food Contact Substance FDA United States Food and Drug Administration FFDCA Federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act FIFRA Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act FSMA Food Safety Modernization Act GRAS Generally Recognized as Safe HPP 4-cumylphenol Alternative to BPA MOU Memorandum of Understanding NHANES National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey NIAS Non-Intentionally Added Substances NTP National Toxicology Program OEHHA California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment OPPT EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics PBDE Polybrominated diphenyl ether PET Polyethylene terephthalate PFAAs Perfluoroalkyl acids PFOA Perfluorooctanoic acid PFOS Perfluoroctane sulfonate PMN Pre-manufacture Notice PVC Polyvinyl chloride TNPP Tris (nonylphenol) phosphate TOR Threshold of Regulation TSCA Toxic Substances Control Act EXECUTIVE SUMMARY n 1906, Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle1 shocked Inventory, or those that have eliminated chemical the American public with its horrific exposé of the ingredients rather than list them on product labels Imeat processing industry. Four months after the under the requirements of Proposition 65 in Califor- book was published, Congress passed the first restric- nia. Others have responded to requirements to list tions on food processing. Congress took broader specific chemicals as in the flame retardant in furni- action in 1938 by passing the Federal Food Drug and ture label required on California’s recently enacted Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), requiring ingredient labels, SB 1019 (Leno). detailed information about when and where food is grown and processed, and regulation of how it is Packaging Chemicals Pose packaged. It led Americans to believe the U.S. had the highest standards for a safe food supply. But in recent Significant Health Hazards years, American confidence in the safety of the U.S. Very few of the thousands of food packaging chemi- food supply has been eroding, from 78% in 2012 to cals in use have undergone rigorous health risk 61% in 2015, with concern about chemicals in food assessment, so a comprehensive analysis of health overtaking fear of food borne illness as Americans’ hazards is not possible. However, one recent analysis top food