The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering a petition, filed by Earthjustice and several partner organizations, asking the agency to withdraw its approval of all 28 phthalates currently allowed as food additives. Please tell the FDA that phthalates don’t belong in our food.
No matter how careful you are about what you eat, your food could be loaded with toxic chemicals called phthalates.
Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are a class of hormone-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to severe genital birth defects in baby boys and to other reproductive health problems. They’re also linked to deficits in child IQ, developmental delays, and other learning disabilities.
It’s hard to avoid phthalates because they’re used in many of the materials that come into contact with our food—from the plastic gloves that food workers wear to plastic equipment used in processing food to the plastic packaging our food is sold in. Phthalates leach out of these materials and seep into our food, ending up in all of our bodies.
Despite powerful scientific evidence of the harmful health effects of these chemicals, the FDA still allows the use of 28 different toxic phthalates as “food additives,” meaning that they can be used in food-handling equipment and food packaging.
Please tell the FDA to keep toxic phthalates out of our food!
