The plastic chemicals in our food
See the thousands of plastic chemicals in what we eat.
When Americans eat a burger, they aren’t just biting through bun, lettuce, tomato and cheese. Instead, the burger — or its packaging, or the utensil used to cook it — also likely contains a blend of chemicals scientists believe harm human health. PFAS. Phthalates. BPA. Flame retardants.These chemicals act on the body in multiple ways — confusing hormones, disrupting immune systems and boosting cancer cells. But they all have one thing in common: They are intimately linked to plastic.Couch cushions, rugs and carpets are made of polyester fibers; furniture and flooring is coated in plastic laminates. The vast majority of food is wrapped in plastic packaging, and Americans cook with plastic spatulas on plastic-coated pans.Plastic ushered in a new era of convenience and filled homes with cheap, disposable goods. But it also has exposed ordinary people to tens of thousands of chemicals that slip out of those items into household dust, food, water — and from there, into bodies. Some of these chemicals are known to disrupt pregnancies, triggering birth defects and fertility problems later in life; others have been linked to cancer and developmental problems.The Washington Post used a comprehensive database, built by scientists in Switzerland and Norway, of 16,000 chemicals linked to plastic materials to see how people interact with chemicals in their everyday lives. Of those, scientists say, more than 5,400 chemicals are considered hazardous to human health. Researchers believe that many of these chemicals are harming Americans even at typical levels of exposure.Here’s how some of the most dangerous chemicals go from everyday items in our kitchens into our bodies.Many plastic chemicals are found in utensils, food packaging and cookware that come in close contact with the food we eat. These chemicals are added to plastic to make it more flexible or hard, more slippery, or more stain-resistant.Flame retardants, for example, are generally found in household furniture or electronics. But thanks to plastic recycling, they are also increasingly coming in close contact with food.Black plastic — like the plastic that forms this tray or plastic spatula — is often made from recycled electronic waste. It can contain high concentrations of brominated flame retardants, which have been linked to lowered IQs and neurodevelopment problems in children.Nonstick pans and compostable plates and cutlery often contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.”Studies show that phthalates, a class of chemicals added to plastic to make it stretchy and soft, are present in the vast majority of foods purchased at a grocery store, especially highly processed foods.In one study by an independent research group in California, researchers found the chemicals in three-quarters of the food tested. Manufacturers say that they began phasing phthalates out of food packaging starting in the 2000s, but the chemicals can still be used in equipment used for storing or processing foods.Bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical that was first used as an artificial form of estrogen, was once the main ingredient in plastic water bottles and the lining on the insides of cans.Despite manufacturer phaseouts, research shows that many foods, including canned foods and canned drinks, still contain BPA or other, similarly structured chemicals, like BPS or BPF. A study by Consumer Reports last year, for example, found these chemicals in 79 percent of foods tested, although the levels have fallen over the past two decades. They have been linked to fertility problems and obesity.Chemicals are what give plastic its unique and varied properties. A single type of plastic — say, polyvinyl chloride — could be treated with phthalates to make it soft and flexible, stabilizers to keep it from breaking down in high temperatures, flame retardants to prevent fire and colorants or dyes.Some of these chemicals have uses beyond plastic. PFAS, for example, can also be used in pesticides and firefighting foams. But researchers have found that the vast majority of their uses come back to plastic. According to one study led by researchers at New York University, 93 percent of the exposure to PFOA, one of the most widely studied PFAS, stems from plastics.Many of these chemicals have endocrine-disrupting properties — meaning they confuse the body’s hormones, particularly in developing children.“When you’re talking about endocrine-disrupting chemicals, a lot of it is plastic,” said Leonardo Trasande, a professor of pediatrics and population health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and one of the authors of that study.The chemical industry points out that these chemicals play key roles in human society. “Phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS, and flame retardants serve critical functions that help protect health and safety in everyday life,” Robert Simon, vice president of chemical products and technology at the American Chemistry Council, said in an email. “For example, some are used in critical healthcare applications, to improve product durability, or to provide essential fire protection.”Simon added that the FDA has found that phthalates and BPA are safe in the amounts found in Americans’ diets. “Typical consumer exposure to BPA in food packaging is far below safe limits set by government agencies,” he said.But scientists say that this blend of chemicals adds up to a stew of potentially toxic materials that fill our homes and the food we eat. The world produces an estimated 450 million metric tons of plastic every year; almost all of that plastic comes with some sort of chemical additive.“Something that is 1 percent of plastic or 0.1 percent of plastic is being produced in unfathomable volumes that are going into consumer products,” said Christos Symeonides, a developmental pediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. “Including food packaging and children’s toys and the clothing that we wear.”Phthalates, flame retardants, bisphenols and PFAS are some of the most widely known — and most concerning — plastic chemicals.But each of these groups can have dozens or hundreds of different chemicals within it — each with slightly different effects on the human body.According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, more than 90 percent of Americans are exposed to key chemicals in these groups.About half of those chemicals are listed as hazardous by governments or industry; only a small number are considered to pose no risk. The rest don’t have enough official hazard data to determine health effects.In total, there are more than 5,400 chemicals in plastics that meet the criteria for chemicals “of concern” to human health, according to government and industry data. That means chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in human and animal bodies, spread easily in the environment, or are known to be toxic to human or animal life.Just 161 are classified as not hazardous.Then there are more than 10,700 chemicals without enough information to judge their safety.“These chemicals haven’t been assessed by governments or by the industry itself,” said Martin Wagner, a professor of biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and one of the creators of the plastic database. “Governments lack the capacity to keep up with all these chemicals.”Researchers once thought plastics were largely inert — not chemically reactive and so safe to have in close contact with food and the human body. But the chemicals added to plastics are not tightly bonded to the polymers. When plastic is heated — or in contact with fatty or acidic foods — those chemicals can spill out.The consequence is that virtually every person in the United States has measurable levels of plastic chemicals in their blood and urine. For example, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the median level of DEHP — one of the most dangerous phthalates — in urine in the United States is 13 micrograms per liter. But some patients can have levels as high as 60 micrograms. The higher the level, the greater the risk of birth defects or neurodevelopmental issues.Most of the evidence for harm from plastic chemicals comes from long-term, epidemiological research. Many studies look at how a mother’s exposure to chemicals can affect her children. A 10-fold increase in maternal levels of brominated flame retardants, for example, is associated with a 3.7-point IQ drop in her child. Women with the highest phthalate exposure are 12 to 16 percent more likely to have a premature birth. And BPA exposure during pregnancy is associated with a higher likelihood of obesity and diabetes.On their own, small amounts of these chemicals may pose only a minor risk. But in combination, the effects can be more dramatic. “We’re not exposed to these chemicals individually,” said Ryan Babadi, an environmental toxicologist and the science director for the group Toxic-Free Future. “We’re constantly being exposed to mixtures all the time.”When combined, chemicals that are individually below safe levels can create dangerous health effects.People are exposed to these chemicals from a range of different sources — flame retardants are in electronics and in household dust; PFAS can be found in tap water across the country.But one of the most concerning sources of exposure, according to many scientists, is food and food packaging.Historically, most plastic food packaging contained phthalates, to make the plastic more stretchy and flexible; plastic water bottles and lined metal cans contained BPA. But even after manufacturer phaseouts, studies show that chemicals are still deeply embedded in the food supply. One analysis by a group in California found that, of 312 foods tested from grocery stores and restaurants, 86 percent contained either phthalates or bisphenols — including baby formula and sourdough bread.Some of the highest concentrations appear to be in highly processed foods. According to one study, pregnant women who ate 10 percent more calories from ultra-processed foods had 13 percent higher levels of DEHP in their urine.Researchers say bisphenols, PFAS, and flame retardants can still be present in some food packaging, and highly processed foods are contaminated by plastic chemicals on their route from a factory onto a plate.“It’s also the materials that are used when you process foods — the filling lines, the storage containers, the processing equipment,” said Jane Muncke, chief scientific officer and managing director for the Zurich-based Food Packaging Forum.The food industry says that packaged foods help keep the contents safe. “Packaging exists to protect and keep food safe for consumption. Food contact substances go through a rigorous scientific risk-based review and approval process before they go to market,” Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy at the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group that represents many large food companies, said in an email.For consumers, experts warn, it’s impossible to tell from packaging whether a product is actually chemical-free. A “BPA-free” can, for example, may still use other bisphenols, like BPS or BPF.Scientists advise people to avoid cooking with and heating plastic — as well as storing fatty or acidic foods in the material. Avoiding ultra-processed foods can help, as can preparing more foods from scratch at home. Those changes can particularly help lower exposure to the more short-lived chemicals, like phthalates or bisphenols.But “forever chemicals” and flame retardants persist in the environment and in human bodies — making them very difficult to remove from the food supply. PFAS, for example, can be found in soils in parts of North Carolina and Maine, where PFAS-treated sewage sludge has been dumped on agricultural land. “In some regions produce is contaminated, sometimes milk is contaminated,” said Heather Stapleton, an exposure scientist and professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.Ultimately, researchers argue that countries need stricter standards to regulate the chemicals that go into plastic. Pharmaceuticals, they argue, are held to high standards to prove safety — but the chemicals that reach our bodies through plastics are a dizzying maze of missing information. “The medicines that you put in your mouth are tightly regulated,” said Sarah Dunlop, an emeritus professor of biological sciences at the University of Western Australia and director of plastics and human health at the Minderoo Foundation. “Whereas the chemical industry has complete carte blanche.”“The problem is, none of the plastics that we have right now are safe,” said Wagner, of Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “That’s not a very nice thing to hear, but that’s what the data tell us.”About this storyPhotos by Marvin Joseph. Design and development by Emily Wright. Editing by Juliet Eilperin, Simon Ducroquet, Dominique Hildebrand, Virginia Singarayar and Gaby Morera Di Núbila.The Post interviewed more than a dozen scientists on the risks of plastic chemicals and how people are exposed to these chemicals in their everyday lives. Exposure numbers for BPA are from 2008 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Exposure numbers for PFOA are from 2020 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Chemicals listed as hazardous include those listed in the PlastChem database with a hazard score of 0.5 and above. The items displayed in this photo are representative and have not been tested for chemicals.
