TetraPak, polyethylene and endocrine disruption

[NateHiggers]

Hello,

After throwing a juice carton directly into the fire, I discovered that there was a thin layer of aluminum lining the carton (as is the case in many TetraPak packagings, apparently). Knowing that OJ is acidic, and will therefore cause aluminum leaching, I assumed there was an inner layer of plastic protecting the liquid from the aluminum, which there is. This lining is what TetraPak calls "Food grade plastic", also known as polyethylene, or more precisely low density polyethylene (LDPE). This food grade plastic has of course been found to exert endocrine disrupting effects, as well as being toxic.

• Is this of concern to you to the extent that you only buy glass bottles or squeeze the oranges yourself?
• Is any supermarket food to be considered safe?
• How THE FUCK do these manufacturers get away with this shit? I did attend some ecological toxicology classes in uni, where we learnt all sorts of interesting stuff. However, the emphasize on "dosage makes the poison" as the central dogma within toxicology really clouds the debate. For example, the safe exposure levels of methylmercury is set at 5.8 mcg/L. This "safe" level is the level where you generally see no adverse effects. This does not mean that it is to be considered "safe". This does not mean that with mercury levels of 5.8 mcg/L you will be at optimal health. Given the choice between eating a piece of tuna with "safe" levels of mercury, and one without mercury whatsoever, I believe most people would chose to eat the piece without any mercury, as we humans inherently understand that poison = bad. My point here is that regulatory agencies should aim for absolutely zero toxicants in our food supply, or other products for that matter. But by having a dogma arguing for "safe levels" of toxicants, the regulatory agencies are allowing manufacturers to poison us.

Some links regarding LDPE:

Majority of plastic food contact articles likely endocrine and metabolism disrupting
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c08250

LDPE inhibits bioluminescence in A. fischeri (i.e. is toxic) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02293

[Energetic Retard]

@NateHiggers Pure polyethylene plastics are relatively safe. Some are chlorinated (not pure PE). Polycarbonate plastics leach estrogenic phenols and are therefore very toxic.

[basebolt]

Hey Nate, I saw haidut mention thyroid, folate, and vitamin E as offering protection against plastic chemicals. (RPF link)

Then there is the concern of microplastic particulates. For this I bet aspirin and adamantane/Diamant would be good

[pannacottas]

Agree about the aluminum. But haidut uses LDPE bottles for idealabs, and has tested various products for leaching, including ones in DMSO, and there was none. And in general i thought it's among the safer types of plastic, no?