Chemical club detected in plastic packaging
Many ingredients of plastic packaging have not yet been analyzed. In addition, there are also many substances that research has not yet been able to classify. One thing is certain: three out of four products contain harmful substances.
Experts from the PlastX research group of the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) http://isoe.de have detected more than 1000 chemicals in plastic packaging, plastic products, with three out of four products containing harmful substances.
In addition, a large proportion of the substances in this chemical mix are not identifiable, as the scientists explain in their study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Questionable mix of pollutants
In collaboration with colleagues from the Goethe University Frankfurt http://uni-frankfurt.de and the Norwegian University of Technology and Natural Sciences http://ntnu.no the experts examined the chemicals in 34 everyday plastic products in terms of their overall toxicity and composition - including products such as yogurt pots, drinking bottles and shampoo bottles made from eight different types of plastic.
"We found harmful substances in three out of four products tested, including chemicals that are toxic to cells or cause endocrine, or hormone-like, effects," reports Lisa Zimmermann, lead author of the study. A greater number of chemicals were found in the plastic types polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PUR), and the effects were more worrying than those in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for example.
1400 chemicals included
"There were more than 1400 chemicals in total in the products. In individual products, we even found more than 100 different substances. Of these 1400 substances, only 260 could be identified in the laboratory. We were unable to identify slightly more than 80 percent of all substances detected with the help of chemical analyses," adds Zimmermann, warning against heating food in its packaging. (Source: pressetext)
