Concerns Raised Over Safety of Common Food Preservative
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:
Concerns raised over safety of common food preservative:
A new study is raising questions over the safety of a commonly used food preservative found in hundreds of products. It's suspected the compound, tert-butylhydroquinone (known as tBHQ or E319), impairs effective immune system activity and the researchers are calling for greater surveillance of the immunological effects of food additives.
The pandemic has focused public and scientific attention on environmental factors that can impact the immune system," says lead author on the new study, Olga Naidenko. Before the pandemic, chemicals that may harm the immune system's defense against infection or cancer did not receive sufficient attention from public health agencies. To protect public health, this must change."
[...] The study suggests the ToxCast data reveals a number of signs tBHQ influences immune activity. The researchers do, however, make clear these findings are based on animal and mechanistic studies. Further investigation needs to be done to better understand how this compound affects human immune parameters, including defense against infection, anti-tumor immune responses, and autoimmune reactivity."
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