The hidden chemical in cans

May 29, 2008

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High levels of bisphenol A prompted many consumers to toss water and baby

bottles containing the controversial material. Now, tests conducted for The

Globe and Mail and CTV have found high levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical

in canned food sold in Canada. Industry insists there is no cause for alarm;

scientists are divided. But is it time to consider cutting back on canned

goods?

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

May 29, 2008 at 4:54 AM EDT

Canned foods sold in Canada contain the estrogen-mimicking chemical

bisphenol A at concentrations as much as double the levels that prompted many

consumers to shun plastic baby bottles and water bottles made from the

controversial

material, according to testing conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV.

The highest amounts were in a food often consumed by children - tomato

sauce, which had 18.2 parts per billion. But the news organizations tested 13

other canned goods purchased at Toronto stores, including beer, ravioli, apple

juice and cream-style corn, and found bisphenol A in every sample.

Tomato juice had 14.1 ppb, chicken noodle soup as much as 9.9 ppb and

ravioli 6.2 ppb.

It is the first time such a review of common, everyday food items has been

done in Canada, and indicates there is widespread exposure to the chemical,

also known as BPA, among those who eat canned goods, even if they do not use

polycarbonate plastic bottles. None of the levels exceed current Health Canada

guidelines, industry officials point out.

" These results provide further evidence that Canadians are marinating in

this chemical on a daily basis, " said Rick Smith, executive director of

Environmental Defence, a Toronto advocacy group that has been lobbying Health

Canada

to ban bisphenol A from food and beverage containers.

Based on the results of animal experiments, researchers have linked low

amounts of BPA to effects such as breast cancer and the earlier onset of

puberty

in girls, among other conditions, with exposures during fetal development and

in early life the most damaging.

In April, Health Canada issued a draft risk assessment indicating that it

planned to add bisphenol A to the country's list of toxic substances as a

precautionary step, based on worries that the margin of safety for infants

exposed

to the chemical from plastic baby bottles and canned formula wasn't large

enough.

Health Canada tested 21 cans of liquid infant formula, and like the

Globe/CTV survey, found BPA in every sample, with levels ranging from 2.3 ppb

to 10.2

ppb.

The agency is the first in the world to take precautionary action against

low-level BPA exposures. It also said it intends to ban polycarbonate baby

bottles and announced that it would work with infant formula makers to reduce

the

amounts leaching from their cans.

But Health Canada wasn't worried about older children and adults

inadvertently consuming BPA from canned food, saying the risk was negligible.

However,

in anticipation that food makers may start reformulating the chemical out of

their products, it also said it is " committed to working with the industry to

investigate the safety of any possible replacement that industry may consider

for bisphenol A-containing epoxy-based linings used in cans. "

Many consumers are shunning polycarbonate plastic bottles because they're

easy to identify, but it isn't generally known that bisphenol A " is kind of

hidden " in cans, Mr. Smith said.

However, the industry insisted that there is no cause for concern. The

amounts leaching " are well below any regulatory limit " and have been " deemed to

be

safe by numerous expert panels, " said John Rost, chairman of the

Washington-based North American Metal Packaging Alliance, a trade group. He

dismissed

concerns about bisphenol A leakage as an " unsubstantiated fear. "

Cans contain BPA because the chemical is used to make the resin that lines

their insides. One way to view cans is that they resemble a thin, plastic-like

container on the inside, with a steel or aluminum shell on the outside for

structural support.

Trace amounts of bisphenol A are leaching from them for the same reason they

have been found to seep from heated baby bottles: The high temperatures used

during the canning process to destroy microbes that cause food poisoning

also prompt the chemical to migrate out of its resin. The acidic nature of many

foods causes some to leak out as well.

Most cans are cooked at microbe-killing temperatures above 100 degrees after

their food or beverage contents are added, although lower temperatures

around 60 degrees are used on beverages sterilized through pasteurization. Soft

drinks create such a harsh environment that microbes can't survive in them; as

a result, while pop cans are also lined with a BPA-containing resin, heat

sterilization isn't required.

The health risks from the levels found in the Globe/CTV testing are subject

to a major dispute among some researchers, who have been finding adverse

effects in laboratory animals subjected to trace exposures at or well below

current safely limits, and industries using and making the chemical, which have

insisted the amounts are harmless.

Other than infant formula, the government did not test cans in its

assessment, although it said in response to e-mailed questions from The Globe

that it

is in the midst of doing so.

Based on Health Canada's current exposure guideline, which was developed in

1995 before it was widely known that BPA could act like a female hormone at

very small doses, an adult would need to consume hundreds of cups of the

tested products each day to exceed the limit.

But less than half a cup of tomato sauce or a cup of chicken noodle soup

would exceed the lowest dose found in recent research to have an adverse effect

on animals. That was a 2005 experiment at Tufts University School of Medicine

in Boston on mice exposed to amounts far below those detected in the

Globe/CTV testing.

Female mice given traces of the chemical during fetal development and early

in neonatal life developed double the amount of milk ducts, something the

researchers surmised would increase breast cancer risk in humans. The

concentration used was only 25 parts per trillion - Health Canada's safe limit

is a

thousand times above that and the concentrations found in Canadian canned foods

were hundreds of times above what was used in the Boston experiment.

One of the scientists on the mouse experiment, Ana M. Soto, professor at

Tufts University School of Medicine, said she believes that very small doses of

BPA constitute a risk, and consequently avoids canned foods.

" If people stopped eating canned food, nothing bad will happen to them, " Dr.

Soto said. " On the contrary, it's not like saying don't breast-feed your

children. That will be bad. "

Dr. Soto also said the safe exposure to BPA is not known among scientists

studying the chemical's effects at low exposures.

" It is very difficult to determine what is safe, " she said. " The government

cannot say that they know that there is a dose that is safe. They cannot say

that today because we do not know that as scientists, so they don't know that

either. "

*****

Hunt's Tomato Sauce

18.21

parts per billion

Chef Boyardee

Mini Beef Ravioli

6.17 ppb

ConAgra Foods says it is " confident in the safety of its products and

packaging. " It says Health Canada has found that bisphenol A leaching into

foods

" is not

a concern for most Canadians, " while other foreign

regulators have concluded it " does not present

a risk to consumer health. "

Noname

Chicken Noodle Soup

9.93 ppb

President's Choice

Meal Replacement

2.06 ppb

Loblaw Companies Ltd. endorses a statement on BPA from Food & Consumer

Products of Canada, an industry trade group. The organization says amounts in

canned foods and beverages " represent a negligible health risk to the general

population. "

Campbell's

Chicken Noodle Soup

8.61 ppb

Campbell Co. of Canada says " the overwhelming weight

of scientific evidence

supports the safety of BPA and provides reassurance

that there is no basis for

human health concerns from contact with residual amounts of BPA. " It said

the testing protocol used will " clearly overstate " BPA levels.

Allen's

Apple Juice

17.9 ppb

Lassonde Industries Inc. says a child would have to consume 28 litres a day

to reach Health Canada's safety limit.

Unico

Tomatoes

1.6 ppb

Unico says the amounts detected are less than 1 per cent of the regulatory

limit.

Molson

Dry Beer

8.19 ppb

Labatt

Ice Beer

9.27 ppb

The Brewers Association of Canada, responding for the

industry, says it is testing products for their BPA content.

It says checks elsewhere on alcoholic beverages have found levels " far

below " safety limits and Health Canada's concerns have been based on exposures

to

infants up

to 18 months.

Heinz

Tomato Juice

14.1 ppb

Heinz

Zoodles

4.65 ppb

Heinz Beans with pork and tomato sauce 2.88 ppb

H.J. Heinz Co. of Canada Ltd. endorses the Food & Consumer Products

of Canada statement on BPA that amounts in canned goods

" represent a negligible health risk to the general population. "

Green Giant

Cream Style Corn

6.52 ppb

General Mills Canada Corp. endorses the Food & Consumer Products

of Canada statement

on BPA.

Del Monte

Peas & Carrots

6.76 ppb

CanGro Foods Inc.

did not respond to

requests for comment.

*****

Test results

The Globe and Mail and CTV News found significant traces of bisphenol A

concentration in its combined study of various food.

BISPHENOL A CONCENTRATION, PARTS PER BILLION OF WATER

Hunt's tomato sauce: 18.21

Allen's apple juice: 17.90

Heinz tomato juice: 14.11

Noname chicken noodle soup: 9.93

Labatt beer: 9.27

Campbell's chicken noodle soup: 8.61

Molson beer: 8.19

Del Monte peas and carrots: 6.76

Green Giant cream style corn: 6.52

Chef Boyardee mini been ravioli: 6.17

Heinz zoodles: 4.65

Heinz baked beans: 2.88

President's Choice meal replacement: 2.06

Unico tomatoes: 1.60

SOURCE: XENOANALYTICAL LLC FOR CTV AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL

*****

HOW CANS ARE MADE:

1 - The trimmed can bodies are passed through highly efficient washers that

remove all traces of oil in preparation for coating internally and

externally.

2 - The clean cans are coated externally with a clear or pigment base for

the printing inks (unless paper labels are used). Then the cans pass through a

hot-air oven to dry the lacquer.

3 - The inside of each can is sprayed with a lacquer. This special layer is

to protect the can itself from corrosion and its contents from any possible

interaction with the metal.

4 - The finished can bodies are transferred to a warehouse to await filling.

HOW CANS ARE FILLED:

5 - Cans are turned upside down and cleaned using high-pressure air and

water, then righted.

6 - They then are filled with carbon dioxide, which replaces all air in the

can.

7 - Up to 2,000 cans per minute are filled with a food or beverage and

sealed. Throughout this process, it is estimated that the can will travel about

1.5 kilometres around the factory.

8 - Beer and some juice will be pasteurized in the can using variable

temperature water jets.

SOURCE: ABOUT.COM

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