Health risks of common additives in consumer products
By Mithila
Added chemicals enhance flavours, colours, textures, and ensure the safe preservation of every day products, such as food and medicine. In Australia, over 300 industrial chemical additives have been assessed for their safety and approved by Food Safety Australia and New Zealand, and the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Nonetheless, consumers are increasingly concerned over growing evidence for the negative health effects of commonly used additives.
More precise research methods are unveiling adverse effects of approved additives.
Industrial chemicals added to consumer products are synthesised using chemical processes. These additives may be chemically identical to naturally occurring compounds, such as salicylic acid and benzoic acid, found in many fruits and vegetables. Some are manufactured using natural materials, such as preservative rosemary extract, whitening agent titanium dioxide from the mineral ilmenite, and dietary emulsifier carrageenan from red seaweed. As the consumer demand for safe and natural products increases, food and therapeutic goods industries are marketing “natural” alternatives to traditional additives. Nonetheless, almost all industrial chemicals absorbed by our bodies are considered xenobiotic — as they are not naturally encountered by the body.
Xenobiotic metabolism is a natural body process that transforms foreign matter enough to be excreted. However, xenobiotic metabolism is tremendously variable, and poses complex consequences. Depending for example on whether the necessary enzymes or gene expression is affected, its effects on microbiota composition, whether the resulting metabolite is toxicologically active or not, and synergistic involvement with other environmental stimuli. In the development of disease, xenobiotics induce cell and tissue damage known as oxidative stress.
Researchers recommend limiting exposure to ultra-processed foods.
Oxidative stress is primarily caused by an imbalance between pro-oxidants and anti-oxidants. Persistent and prolonged oxidative stress is known to exert chronic, low-grade inflammation. The medical community has long recognised chronic inflammation to be at the root of over 100 human diseases. Chronic inflammation has been associated with anxiety, hyperactivity and inattention, decreased motivation, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases, fatty liver disease, and much more.
Compared to the natural materials from which industrial chemicals are derived, the extracted chemical profiles differ vastly by type and concentration, so as to maximise the unique functional properties of an additive. Consequently, additives in consumer products require toxicity testing. Safety authorities approve of the additives currently in use by evidencing the low acute, sub-chronic, and chronic toxicity of individual additives at higher doses than that allowed in the consumer market.
In reviewing more recent research, safety authorities have stated that adverse effects at lower doses may indeed be an issue for sensitised people. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2016 also added that benzoic acid may increase hypersensitivity in the general population. This suggests that the various benzoates utilised in shampoo to soft-drinks, may be increasing sensitivity, and with prolonged exposure over one’s lifetime, lead to adverse effects at lower doses. EFSA also observed that doses below the ‘Acceptable Daily Intake’ induced anaphylaxis and urticaria in sensitive individuals.
Increasing numbers of researchers with more precise methods are unveiling adverse effects of various approved additives, even at low doses, in the general population and in animal models. In many of the past and recent studies, the negative health effects of additives increased in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Current toxicological studies are limited by their focus on individual additives. Modern humans consume a variety of additives daily, in a wide-range of products including food, dietary supplements, medicines and personal-care items — thereby significantly increasing the level of exposure, and potential interaction effects. The damage that many such additives alone, or in combination may yield isn’t well known.
In the absence of further studies, researchers recommend limiting exposure to additives— in particular ultra-processed foods. This is especially important for those with chronic health conditions, and other vulnerable people such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
