School lunches tainted with hormone-mimicking chemicals, finds Italian study.

[Felix]

Environmental Health News
Synopsis by Steven Neese and Wendy Hessler
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2011/10/2011-1109-school-lunches-phthalates

Food packaging appears to increase the levels of two phthalates in lunches fed Italian children. This was discovered by Italian scientists when they compared the level of phthalates in elementary school children's food before and after it was packaged and delivered. As a result, the catered food some elementary school children in Italy eat for lunch contained  higher levels of two common plastic chemicals after it is packaged and delivered than before. Estimates of the children's exposure to the chemicals from this one mid-day meal approaches the total daily intake levels set by the European Union's food safety authority.

The study finds that the preparation, packaging and delivery of school meals from an offsite catering service can more than double the level of two phthalate chemicals – DEHP and DBP – in the foods. Higher levels were found in breads packaged warm right after baking and in foods with oils and fats.

Even though fresh foods often contain some level of phthalate contamination, the researcher's point out the need to improve safety measures when preparing school foods, especially if they are packaged. Further research is needed to determine if these risks also occur in food served in school cafeterias in the United States.

[supremecatoverlord]

If this alarms you, I suggest you look into DES and how it was (and I think still is) injected into a lot of our animal products. Honestly, I'm not surprised at all and this is why I'm so conscious about what I eat.

[Felix]

I have read about DES. They used to put it in prenatal vitamins. It was a huge disaster with persistent ramifications for the kids born to those mothers, but most of society then just forgot about it. I'm not going to stress myself out looking it up tonight, but I believe it is still used in some industry or other. Well-regulated meat production shouldn't be using it anymore. Regulations don't always get enforced though, and not every country has particular rules about endocrine disruptors in our food supply.

[supremecatoverlord]

I have read about DES. They used to put it in prenatal vitamins. It was a huge disaster with persistent ramifications for the kids born to those mothers, but most of society then just forgot about it. I'm not going to stress myself out looking it up tonight, but I believe it is still used in some industry or other. Well-regulated meat production shouldn't be using it anymore. Regulations don't always get enforced though, and not every country has particular rules about endocrine disruptors in our food supply.

Even if DES isn't used in meat products anymore (which I'm pretty sure it's used in some), there are plenty of other hormones in non-organic meat. It's actually kind of ridiculous really what people will do to food just to get the most quantity to make a profit.
DES used to be administered in forms out their prenatal vitamins though. There were other methods of administration; regardless DES daughters (exposed in utero) are 40% more likely to get a rare type of clear cell cervical cancer. There was evidence of DES causing this same cancer in lab rats over ten years before DES stopped being distributed for prenatal care. So yep, severe complications - and there were other problems too.