FDA必須對食品中添加的數千種化學物質進行更多監(jiān)管

FDA必須對食品中添加的數千種化學物質進行更多監(jiān)管

Pretend you're pregnant.

假如你懷孕了。

You're careful about every morsel you put into your mouth, exquisitely conscious about the potential impact on your growing baby's development.

你小心翼翼地吃進嘴里的每一口食物，非常清楚地意識到它對寶寶成長發(fā)育的潛在影響。

But there is a catch: No matter how careful you may be, the food you eat and the beverages you drink likely contain one or more of some 10,000 chemicals allowed to be added to foods -- some of which are known endocrine (hormone) disruptors linked to developmental, cognitive and other health problems in babies and adults.

但有一個問題：無論你多么小心，你吃的食物和喝的飲料都可能含有允許添加到食物中的大約10000種化學物質中的一種或多種——其中一些是已知的內分泌(激素)干擾因子，與嬰兒和成人的發(fā)育、認知和其他健康問題有關。

Yet the agency charged with protecting our food from unsafe chemicals -- the US Food and Drug Administration -- hasn't been doing the job Congress intended when it passed the 1958 Food Additives Amendment, according to a citizen's petition filed Wednesday and provided exclusively to CNN in advance.

然而，根據周三提交給CNN的一份公民請愿書，負責保護我們的食品不受不安全化學物質侵害的機構——美國食品和藥物管理局——并沒有履行國會在通過1958年食品添加劑修正案時所打算做的工作。

"The FDA never considers the overall effect of these 10,000 chemicals on people's health, which is what Congress was after," said Tom Neltner, the chemicals policy director for the Environmental Defense Fund, a key signatory of the petition.

“美國食品和藥物管理局從來沒有考慮過這10000種化學品對人們健康的總體影響，而這正是國會想要的，”湯姆·內爾納說，他是環(huán)境保護基金的化學品政策主管，也是請愿書的關鍵簽到人。

"And it's not simply one plus one equals two. We know that synthetic chemicals that harm hormones have what we call additive or synergistic effects," said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics' policy statement on the potential harms of food additives and packaging, which is part of the citizen's petition.

“一加一不等于二。美國兒科學會關于食品添加劑和包裝潛在危害的政策聲明的合著者萊昂納多·特拉森博士說:“我們知道，有害激素的合成化學物質具有我們所說的添加劑或協同效應。”這也是公民請愿的一部分。

Consider the cumulative effect

考慮累積效應

Scientists used to think that it was a baby's thyroid hormone level that was important to brain development. Studies have now shown that a shift in an expecting mother's thyroid hormone, "even if it's so subtle it doesn't show up on a clinical test," can have consequences to a child's future development, Trasande said.

科學家們過去認為，嬰兒的甲狀腺激素水平對大腦發(fā)育至關重要。特拉森說，現在的研究已經表明，孕婦甲狀腺激素的變化，“即使在臨床測試中沒有顯示出來，”也會對孩子未來的發(fā)育產生影響。

The plastic wrap can contain chlorine, the nonstick cookware is made with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and the vegetables and drinking water may contain nitrates from fertilizers, which often leach into ground water, especially in agricultural areas.

保鮮膜可能含有氯，不粘鍋是由全氟烷基和多氟烷基物質(PFAS)制成的，蔬菜和飲用水可能含有肥料中的硝酸鹽，這些硝酸鹽經常滲入地下水，特別是在農業(yè)地區(qū)。

All three of those chemicals are known endocrine disrupters. A review of the last five years of research by Trasande found an "explosion of evidence" about the negative impact on our health of such chemicals in agricultural pesticides and plastic or other containers used in manufacturing that touch our food.

這三種化學物質都是已知的內分泌干擾物。特拉森對過去五年的研究進行了回顧，發(fā)現“大量證據”表明，農業(yè)殺蟲劑、塑料或其他用于生產食品的容器中的化學物質會對我們的健康造成負面影響。

Any negative impact of food additives will be much worse for children of any age, said Dr. Margaret Cuomo, author of "A World Without Cancer," a book that explores environmental impacts on cancer risk.

《沒有癌癥的世界》一書的作者瑪格麗特·科莫博士說，食品添加劑的任何負面影響對任何年齡的兒童都將嚴重得多。這本書探討了環(huán)境對癌癥風險的影響。

"Children are always the most vulnerable especially when it comes to the endocrine disrupters," Cuomo said, "because their endocrine, neurological and reproductive systems are just developing. And so these chemicals have a much higher impact on their little bodies compared to adults."

科莫說:“兒童總是最脆弱的，特別是當涉及到內分泌干擾物時，因為他們的內分泌腺、神經系統和生殖系統才剛剛發(fā)育。因此，與成年人相比，這些化學物質對他們幼小的身體的影響要大得多。”

It's the FDA's responsibility to step up and remove the responsibility of avoiding such dangers from consumers, said Dr. Aparna Bole, chair of the AAP's Council on Environmental Health, who worked on the petition.

美國兒科學會環(huán)境健康委員會主席、參與起草請愿書的阿帕納·博爾博士說，FDA有責任站出來，免除消費者避免此類危險的責任。

Regulate the class of chemicals

監(jiān)管化學品類別

The way the FDA approaches its regulatory job contributes to the problem, experts say.

專家說，FDA處理其監(jiān)管工作的方式是造成這一問題的原因之一。

Take PFAS chemicals, which have been linked to an increased risk of cancer, asthma and thyroid disease, as well as liver damage and decreased fertility. Called "forever" chemicals, because they do not degrade in the environment, PFAS are so widespread that levels have been detected in the blood of 97% of Americans, according to a 2015 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

以PFAS化學物質為例，它會增加患癌癥、哮喘和甲狀腺疾病的風險，還會損害肝臟和降低生育能力。被稱為“永久”的化學物質，因為它們在環(huán)境中不會降解。根據美國疾病控制和預防中心2015年的一份報告，PFAS在美國非常普遍，97%的美國人的血液中都檢測到了這種物質。