NEW FOOD CONTAMINANTS-ARE THEY ALARMING?

To the plethora of chemicals humans ingest in the day to day life here comes another one which was recently found to be in some food products and the environment around. HBCD as it is named by the organic chemists has not yet been conclusively proved to be harmful at concentrations found in meat, milk and fish, though further studies only can reveal the extent of danger posed by this substance. What is interesting is that HBCD levels in the house hold environment is much higher than that is found in some of the foods tested so far and the implication of this finding cannot be comprehended as of now. Though government safety agencies "think" that the current situation does not warrant any alarm, it is difficult to take such assurances at their face value and sooner the issue is resolved better it will be for the consumer community. Here is a take on this new developments which needs priority consideration by the health experts for further consideration.

"A new study from researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health has revealed that flame retardant chemicals were found in many samples taken from popular food items. While less than half of the tested food products had detectible levels of the chemical called hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), 15 out of the 36 items tested positive. HBCD is used in polystyrene foam in the building and construction industry and can be found worldwide in the environment and wildlife, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It has been highly toxic for aquatic organisms, and shown to have troubling effects on animal populations. "The levels we found are lower than what the government agencies currently think are dangerous," study author Dr. Arnold Schecter, a public health physician at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas, told WebMD. "But those levels were determined one chemical at a time."

What is of serious concern is its possible role as an endocrine disruptor, capable of adversely affecting the functions of hormonal system as a whole and the Thyroid function in particular. The dangers of careless and indiscriminate disposal of plastics into the open which ultimately end up in the water bodies are obvious when it has been pointed out that HBCD is found mostly in foods derived from animals and fish which consume contaminated water and vegetation containing this toxic chemical. Endocrine disruptor chemicals are becoming more and more prominent these days because of their suspected role in causing many diseases due to interference with functions of the hormonal system in human body. Besides some of them have been implicated as obesogens, responsible for hijacking the fat metabolism leading to the obesity syndrome in most people. In the light of these findings, more serious attention needs to be bestowed on such chemicals which creep into the food system at sun-ppb levels with enormous potential to cause havoc on human health.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
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