Acrylamide could get prop 65 for reproductive harm

By Caroline Scott-Thomas

California health officials have proposed that acrylamide, the suspected carcinogen produced during the cooking of certain foods, should be listed as a known reproductive toxicant.

Under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known as Proposition 65, the state is required to keep a list of substances that are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Acrylamide is already on the list, first entering it in 1990 for cancer risk. A per capita maximum dose level was later set at 0.2 micrograms a day. This was before the discovery that acrylamide forms naturally in many foods when they are baked, toasted or fried, and that most people were probably already consuming far more than 0.2 micrograms per day. The current proposal suggests a maximum allowable dose level for acrylamide of 140 micrograms a day for a 70kg (154lbs) male.

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has said it is seeking public comments on the proposal, and on the proposed maximum allowable dose due to “the significant public interest in this chemical”.

Based on the results of a number of animal studies, OEHHA said: “The evidence is sufficient for listing acrylamide as known to cause reproductive toxicity by the authoritative bodies mechanism.”

Read the entire article here..