Are New Food Packaging Chemicals Any Safer?
WASHINGTON, June 9, 2008 – DuPont and other chemical companies have promised to phase out a cancer-causing chemical found in grease-resistant coatings for food packaging. But the new, supposedly green chemicals the industry is pushing as a replacement may be no safer. An investigation by Environmental Working Group (EWG) found there are almost no data publicly available on the health risks of the new chemicals, leaving in question whether food packaging and other products using them are any less hazardous to people and the environment. EWG found that DuPont and other manufacturers are continuing a decades-long pattern of deception about the perfluorinated chemicals known as PFCs. The report, “Credibility Gap: Toxic Chemicals in Food Packaging and Dupont’s Greenwashing,” is available at www.ewg.org/reports/dupontdeceit. “Calling these replacement chemicals ‘green’ is like saying you’re safer driving a car at 150 miles an hour instead of 200,” said Olga Naidenko, PhD, an EWG senior scien
