Action Alerts

Get these hormone-disrupting chemicals out of our food

What's At Stake

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to ban phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates), a type of petrochemical used in packaging that leaches into food and causes serious harm to human health, particularly to children. No matter how careful you are about what you eat, your food likely contains phthalates because the FDA allows these chemicals to be used for producing and packaging food.

The Trump administration has made their goals for their second term clear: try to gut existing protections and prevent new ones that keep toxic chemicals out of our bodies.  

If you think the plastics industry shouldn’t be allowed to contaminate our food with toxic chemicals, tell the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) you disagree with its decision of taking the chemical industry’s side on this. Urge the FDA Commissioner to ban phthalates in food-contact materials. 

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Phthalates are linked to birth defects, infertility, and preterm birth. They can also harm children’s brain development, leading to reduced IQ and attention and behavior disorders. Babies and young children are most vulnerable to harm from phthalates and suffer the greatest exposure since they eat and drink more per pound of body weight. And people of color in all age groups, as well as economically insecure people, face disproportionately high levels of exposure to phthalates, placing them at heightened risks of serious health problems from phthalates. Given the well-established — and growing — body of scientific studies linking phthalate exposure through food and drinks to serious health harms, Earthjustice and our partners asked the FDA to ban phthalates in food packaging and production materials in 2016. After years of stalling by the FDA, Earthjustice and our partners sued to force an end to the agency’s harmful inaction. The FDA had ample time and overwhelming evidence that allowing phthalates to get into our food is causing life-altering harm to people’s health — but when compelled to finally decide, it chose to let corporations keep contaminating our food with these toxic chemicals. 

We deserve better from the agency charged with ensuring our food is safe from toxic chemicals. Urge FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to reconsider this disastrous decision and ban phthalates from food packaging. 

mac_and _cheese
Findings revealed DEHP, the most widely banned phthalate around the world, in all ten macaroni and cheese powders. (Mike Mozart/ Flickr CC BY 2.0)

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

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They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

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Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

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It’s the law.

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What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.