Oestrogenicity of paper and cardboard extracts used as food containers

Abstract

Bisphenol-A (BPA), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which are common chemical residues in food-packaging materials, were investigated in paper and cardboard containers used for take-away food. The oestrogenicity of aqueous extracts was tested in E-Screen bioassay and analysis carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Oestrogenicity was demonstrated in 90% of extracts (geometric mean [GM] = 11.97 pM oestradiol equivalents g⁻¹). DEHP, DBP, and BPA (GM = 341.74, 37.59, and 2.38 ng g⁻¹ of material) were present in 77.50, 67.50, and 47.50% of samples, respectively. In bivariate analyses, no significant association was found between the levels of these chemicals and oestrogenicity in cardboard/paper extracts. A close-to-significant association was found between oestrogenicity and DBP (β = 1.25; p = 0.06) in paper extracts, which reached statistical significance in multivariate analysis (β = 1.61; p = 0.03). Paper and cardboard used in food packaging may contribute to the inadvertent exposure of consumers to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Keywords:

• Paper and cardboard
• phthalates
• bisphenol-A
• oestrogenicity.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Richard Davies for editorial assistance and Clemente Aguilar for technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS 02/1314, 02/309, C03/081 and G03/176), the European Union Commission (QLK4-CT-2002-00603 and CASCADE FOOD-CT-2003-506319) and the Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios (OCU) de Compramaestra, Spain.