I stopped eating microwave popcorn when this came out... I know its probably false.. but oh well.. regular old popcorn I like the taste better anyways
Chemicals in Microwave Popcorn
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Scientists are taking a second look at the packaging of microwave popcorn. That's because a recent FDA study found that a coating used to make microwave popcorn bags grease resistant is seeping into popcorn. It's called a flurotelemer. And it's made by Dupont, the same company that makes teflon.
One former Dupont senior scientist recently brought a 1987 internal memo to the government's attention. The memo warned more of the chemical was coming off the paper than originally thought.
Glenn Evers (Scientist) says: "Even before we cook the popcorn the butter is already contaminated with a paper flurochemical that will be absorbed into your blood and stay in your blood for a long, long time."
FDA scientists say popcorn is still safe since such small amounts of flurotelemers generally show up in the snack.
Now another government study, this one for the EPA, found perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which can be extracted from the chemical, causes cancer in animals -and is "likely to be carcinogenic to humans."
Further testing is underway. Dupont says they very confident in the results of the FDA study, and they feel consumers should feel safe about using this product too.
However, the popcorn council says companies are moving away from using this coating on their bags.
The scientists found that a significant percentage of the fluorotelomers migrated from the bags to the popcorn oil, resulting in levels of 3–4 mg/kg. These concentrations are hundreds of times higher than the amount of PFOA that could migrate from nonstick cookware the first time it is heated above 175 °C. Because the surface area of a microwave popcorn bag is about 1000 square centimeters, a person consuming a bag’s worth could take up to 110 micrograms of fluorotelomers, according to three toxicologists who performed these calculations on the condition of anonymity.
Toxicologists commonly convert such an exposure into a human dose by dividing by the average adult body weight, 65 kg. This means that the average dose of fluorotelomers from each bag of popcorn is 1.7 micrograms per kilogram. Children who ate a whole bag would get a higher dose.
Scientists don’t currently know how readily humans can metabolize fluorotelomers to PFOA, says University of Alberta (Canada) biochemist Jonathan Martin. But in a recent
article in
Chemico-Biological Interactions, he reports that rat liver cells can directly convert 1.4% of fluorotelomer alcohol to PFOA. Another 7% of the fluorotelomer alcohol is metabolized to intermediate acids that are also expected to eventually degrade to PFOA. So a conservative estimate for the conversion from fluorotelomers to PFOA is 1%. This means that a person eating a whole bag of popcorn could take up 0.017 ppb of PFOA.
Given that the average PFOA content of human blood is about 4 ppb, a person would have to eat about 300 bags of microwave popcorn over 5–10 years (about a bag a week) if all the PFOA in their blood came from the snack. Toxicologists say that 5–10 years is an appropriate timescale for such a calculation because PFOA is reported to have a long half-life in humans, about 4 years. Although most people probably do not eat a bag a week, Americans do wolf down 39 million pounds, or about 156 million bags every year, according to the Snack Manufacturers Association. Consumption of just 10 bags of microwave popcorn a year could contribute about 20% of the average blood PFOA levels, say the scientists interviewed anonymously for this article.
“This dose is certainly not insignificant,” Martin says. “Scientists should be, and are, considering polyfluorinated precursors [such as the fluorotelomers] as a potential human exposure pathway to perfluorinated acids, including PFOA,” he adds.
Microwave popcorn bags probably represent the worst-case scenario for getting PFOA precursors into foods, Begley notes. This is because the amount of fluorotelomers in the coatings is high and because popcorn bags get very hot—they heat up to more than 200 °C in just a minute or two. These temperatures significantly increase the potential for migration of the packaging components to foods, he says.
Fluorotelomer coatings are not used in all microwave snack-food packaging. For example, microwavable stuffed sandwiches like Hot Pockets and microwave pizza do not use paper coated with fluorotelomers, according to Begley, who says that he’s still conducting research on other papers and coatings.
EPA investigating vapors from microwave popcorn
By the Associated Press
The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the chemicals released into the air when a bag of microwave popcorn is popped or opened.
Exposure to vapors from butter flavoring in microwave popcorn has been linked to a rare lung disease contracted by factory workers in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has said it suspects the chemical diacetyl caused the illnesses.
However, health officials insist people who microwave popcorn and eat it at home are not in danger.
In the first direct study of chemicals contained in one of the nation's most popular snack foods, the EPA's Indoor Environment Management Branch at Research Triangle Park, N.C., is examining the type and amount of chemicals emitted from microwave popcorn bags.
Further research would be needed to determine any health effects of those chemicals and whether consumers are at risk, said Jacky Rosati, an EPA scientist involved in the study.
"Once we know what chemicals are and the amounts, somebody else can look at the health effects," Rosati said Wednesday.
About 50 brands, batches and flavors of microwave popcorn — from super-buttery to sugary sweet "kettle corn" — are being tested, she said.
"Obviously, we are looking at diacetyl because it is a known compound that will come off this popcorn. But we're not looking at that alone," Rosati said.
The EPA study began last fall and is expected to be completed this year. It likely will be submitted for peer review before being made public, Thompson said.
Rosati started the study after hearing a presentation on popcorn workers who became sick at the Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. plant in Jasper, Mo.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has linked diacetyl to the respiratory illnesses found in workers who mix the microwave popcorn flavorings. Investigators believe the chemical becomes hazardous when it is heated and there is repeated exposure to large quantities over a long time.
Thirty former workers at the Jasper plant are suing two butter flavoring manufacturers.
The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association based in Washington, D.C., said the flavor ingredients in microwave popcorn pose no threat to consumers.
The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates food additives, also considers butter flavoring to be safe for consumer use.
"I haven't seen anything that would give us any reason to suspect this is something we should make a high priority," said George Pauli, acting director of the FDA's office of food additive safety.
United States consumers bought $1.33 billion worth of microwave popcorn in 2000, said Ann Wilkes, spokeswoman for the Snack Food Association.
