Call for Safety Trials to Test Food Packaging

Health experts are calling for "drug-style safety trials" into food packaging after a decade long study revealed that a chemical present in plastic that is commonly used for food packaging was found to increase the risk of heart disease.

Researchers from Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Exeter and the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health took part in the 10-year long study and analyzed data of more than 1,600 people in the United States.

The researchers found that people who had high levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) developed heart disease. BPA is widely used in manufacturing plastics that are often used in food packaging. The study has been published in the journal Circulation.

Lead researcher Professor David Melzer said that while heart disease cannot be directly attributed to BPA, the government should conduct drugs-style safety trials in order to check the exact effect of the chemical. "It is now important that government agencies organise drug-style safety trials of BPA in humans, as much basic information about how BPA behaves in the human body is still unknown", he said.

Source: Medindia