Plastic food packaging contains harmful substances

05/02/2024

Editorial of the Health Diary

Affecting metabolism

Plastic is a very complex material that can contain many different chemical compounds, some of which can be harmful to human health and the environment.

The problem is that this also applies to plastic food packaging, which, in principle, should be completely inert and harmless.

“We found 9,936 different chemical compounds in a single plastic product used as food packaging,” said Professor Martin Wagner from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

To begin the project, researchers analyzed 36 different plastic products used to package food. These products came from five countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany and Norway.

“In most of these plastic products, we find chemicals that can affect hormone secretion and metabolism,” said Wagner.

These functions are absolutely vital. Hormones are the body’s messengers, being secreted by several different glands and operating so that different organs communicate with each other. Metabolism is the sum of the various processes that allow the body to use nutrients to extract the energy and substances it needs to function.

Affecting body signals

The researchers also looked at different combinations of plastic chemicals to see the possible effect they have on G-protein coupled receptors – these receptors play an important role in transmitting signals throughout the body.

“We have identified 11 chemical combinations of plastic products that affect these signal receptors,” said Professor Wagner. “These and other findings show that plastic exposes us to toxic chemicals. They support the theory that we need to redesign plastic to make it safer.”

Researchers have also described new ways in which these chemical mixtures can affect the transmission of signals in the body.

Until now, it was uncertain whether the chemicals could be released into the environment under normal conditions, or whether they would remain bound to the plastic. However, a few years ago, another group of research proved that most plastic products leach chemical compounds when submerged in water, even having negative effects on human fertility.

Because plastics contain so many different chemicals, researchers can only identify a few of them at a time. This means that we still know very little about the effects that most of these chemicals have on our health.