Trump admin won’t regulate toxic chemical found in food packaging

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration denied a petition brought forth by NRDC, the Center for Food Safety, the Breast Cancer Fund, and other partners to ban the toxic chemical perchlorate in dry food packaging. Perchlorate impairs hormone production, making it particularly dangerous to fetuses, infants, and children, and has also been linked to increased cancer risk. A diet study by the FDA, conducted between 2008 and 2012, detected startlingly high levels of perchlorate in rice cereal for babies. In response to this danger, NRDC and partners petitioned the FDA in 2014 to ban perchlorate in food packaging. After the agency missed the deadline, NRDC and partners sued the FDA to force action. The Trump administration’s decision to allow perchlorate to remain in our food ignores sound science, abandons food safety, and puts all Americans, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable, at risk.