California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added diisononyl phthalate—a plasticizer used in food contact materials—to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer. OEHHA’s Carcinogen Identification Committee determined that “the chemical was clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause cancer.” The addition, made under the “state’s qualified expert” mechanism of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65), takes effect December 20, 2013. OEHHA will next set a safe exposure level for the chemical. See OEHHA News Release, December 12, 2013; Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter, December 13, 2013. Issue 508
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California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a request for public comments on draft templates for tabulating epidemiology studies and data from animal studies for use by members of the agency’s Science Advisory Board Development and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee. Comments are requested by December 23, 2013. See OEHHA News Release, December 4, 2013. Meanwhile, during the December 5 meeting of OEHHA’s Carcinogen Identification Committee, diisononyl phthalate, a plasticizer used in food-contact materials, and butyl benzyl phthalate, a chemical used in food conveyor belts, were discussed as candidates for addition to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer. See Proposition 65 News, December 5, 2013.
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued the tentative agenda for the December 5, 2013, meeting of its Carcinogen Identification Committee, which identifies chemicals for addition to the Proposition 65 list when they have been “clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause cancer.” Under consideration will be butyl benzyl phthalate, a chemical used in food conveyor belts, and diisononyl phthalate, a plasticizer used in food-contact materials. The meeting will be webcast. See OEHHA News Release, November 14, 2013.
According to news sources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently withdrew two draft rules, including one that would have designated bisphenol A (BPA) and certain phthalates as “chemicals of concern,” submitted for approval in 2010 and 2011 to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) where they remained beyond their prescribed 90-day period of review. The other rule would have clarified that health and safety studies on pre-market chemicals submitted to EPA would not have been deemed confidential business information and would have been made publicly available. The proposed rules were opposed by the chemical industry, which has praised EPA’s decision to abandon the rulemaking. According to an Environmental Defense Fund scientist, OIRA’s failure to act “has effectively denied the public its voice in the rulemaking process.” Richard Denison also said, “By blocking EPA from even proposing the rules and taking public comment—which…
Environment Canada has issued a notice directing manufacturers and importers to provide information about their use of phthalates in food and beverage contact materials, among other consumer products. According to the July 13, 2013, announcement in the Canada Gazette, the government has identified more than 30 phthalate substances for priority assessment under its Chemicals Management Plan. To this end, Environment Canada has asked industry for details about the manufacture, importation and use of these substances “for the purposes of assessing whether [they] are toxic or capable of becoming toxic, or for the purpose of assessing whether to control [them].” The notice applies to those stakeholders who (i) imported or manufactured more than 100 kilograms of any of the listed substances at a concentration equal to or above 0.001 percent by weight; (ii) used more than 1,000 kilograms of a substance at that concentration; or (iii) imported phthalate-containing products intended for…
A recent study has allegedly linked di-2-ethyhexylphthalate (DEHP) exposure to elevated blood pressure (BP) in children, raising concerns about the effect of phthalates and other plastic additives on long-term heart health. Leonardo Trasande, et al., “Urinary Phthalates Are Associated with Higher Blood Pressure in Childhood,” The Journal of Pediatrics, May 2013. Researchers with the New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center, University of Washington, University of Cincinnati, and Penn State University apparently used urinary metabolite data from 3,000 children enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2008 to quantify exposure to three phthalate families, including DEHP. Although the results evidently found no association between the phthalates used in cosmetics and personal care products and increased BP, dietary exposure to DEHP was reportedly associated “with higher systolic BP in children and adolescents.” “Phthalates can inhibit the function of cardiac cells and cause oxidative stress that compromises the health of…
The U.K.-based Chemicals, Health and Environment Monitoring (CHEM) Trust has issued a March 2012 report claiming that recent studies have linked “hormone disrupting chemicals in food and consumer products” to obesity and Type 2 diabetes in humans. The report apparently analyzes 240 research papers offering epidemiological or laboratory evidence to suggest that certain chemicals—such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates—are obesogenic or diabetogenic. “The chemicals implicated include some to which the general population are typically exposed on a daily basis,” states the report, which also speculates that some “endocrine disrupting chemicals” (EDCs) stored in body fat “may play a role in the causal relationship between obesity and diabetes.” Based on its findings, CHEM Trust argues that obesity prevention strategies like dietary interventions “should not obscure the need for government policies within and outside the health sector” to reduce chemical exposure through the food chain, food containers…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced changes to its bottled water quality standard “by establishing an allowable level for the chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP).” Effective April 16, 2012, the final rule establishes “in § 165.110(b)(4)(iii)(C) (21 CFR 165.110(b)(4)(iii)(C)), which includes allowable levels for pesticides and other synthetic organic chemicals, an allowable level for DEHP at 0.006 mg/L.” It also requires manufacturers to monitor their products “for DEHP at least once each year under the current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations” and to monitor their source water “as often as necessary, but at least once every year unless they meet the criteria for source water monitoring exemptions under the CGMP.” According to FDA, the amended rule brings bottled water standards in line with those set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for public drinking water. The two comments opposing the rule change evidently did not provide enough evidence to challenge…
A recent University of Michigan study has reportedly suggested that phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) could affect thyroid functioning in humans. John Meeker and Kelly Ferguson, “Relationship Between Urinary Phthalate and Bisphenol A Concentrations and Serum Thyroid Measures in U.S. Adults and Adolescents from NHANES 2007-08,” Environmental Health Perspectives, July 11, 2011. Researchers apparently used thyroid serum measures from 1346 adults and 329 adolescents enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine that “[g]enerally speaking, greater concentrations of urinary phthalate metabolites and BPA were associated with greater impacts on serum thyroid measures.” In particular, the study found that as urinary metabolite concentrations for di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and BPA increased, certain thyroid hormones decreased. “The current study showed the strongest relationship between thyroid disruption and DEHP,” explained a July 12, 2011, University of Michigan press release, which noted that “urine samples in the highest 20 percent of exposure…
A recent study led by the Breast Cancer Fund and Silent Spring Institute reportedly concluded that both bisphenol A (BPA) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) exposures “were substantially reduced when participants’ diets were restricted to food with limited packaging.” Ruthann Rudel, et al., “Food Packaging and Bisphenol A and Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate Exposure: Findings from a Dietary Intervention,” Environmental Health Perspectives, March 30, 2011. Researchers selected “20 participants in five families based on self-reported use of canned and packaged foods,” and then directed these subjects to eat “their usual diet, followed by three days of ‘fresh foods’ not canned or packaged in plastic,” before returning to their customary habits. The results of urinary samples taken over the eight-day experiment reportedly demonstrated a significant decrease in BPA and DEHP metabolites during the fresh foods intervention. According to the Silent Spring Institute, these findings allegedly “show that food packaging is the major source of…
