快餐包装的致癌风险

You don’t go to a fast food restaurant expecting a healthy meal, but you generally don’t expect potentially carcinogenic compounds, either. It turns out that a third of the time, that’s what you’re getting, and not in the food, but in the wrapper. Scientists aren’t sure how concerning this new health revelation is just yet, but it appears that even fast food wrappers can be bad for you.

去快餐店吃东西的你肯定不会指望在这里能吃到健康食物，但你必然没有料到这里还有致癌化合物。事实上，在三分之一的情况下你吃到的致癌化合物来自食物包装而非食物。科学家们并不确定这一最新健康发现的影响范围，不过他们知道就连快餐食物的包装都会对你不利。

A team of American scientists analyzed around 400 samples of fast food packaging, and found that a third contained fluorine, indicative of certain chemicals harmful both to humans and the environment. The results demonstrate we could unknowingly be eating these chemicals should they migrate into our food. The information isn’t new—prior studies have also found these chemicals in fast food wrappers, but these results are important for demonstrating a quick new way to measure the chemicals, and for determining the scope of the problem.

一队来自美国的科学家们分析了四百个快餐包装纸样本，发现三分之一含有氟，它对人体和环境均有害。研究结果表明当这些化学物质渗入食物中的时候，我们会在不知不觉中吃掉它们。这一说法并不新颖，先前也有研究在快餐包装中发现了这些化学物质，新研究的重要之处在于确定了这些物质的影响。

The scientists hunted specifically for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, used to make consumer products stain-resistant and waterproof. But PFASs can also cause all sorts of shitty things like “kidney and testicular cancer, low birth weight, thyroid disease, decreased sperm quality, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and immunotoxicity in children,” according to the paper published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. Fast food companies have phased out some PFASs, but the remaining ones can still leach into your food through the wrapper.

科学家们主要研究了全氟烷基物质，它可以放掉色和防水。但全氟烷基物质也会带来各种问题，比如肾癌和睾丸癌、出生体重低、甲状腺疾病、精子质量下降、妊娠诱发高血压和儿童免疫中毒。该研究已被发表在《环境科学与技术期刊》上。快餐店已逐步淘汰了某些全氟烷基物质，但剩余的全氟烷基物质依旧会从包装渗入你的食物中。

That’s important, the study’s authors write, because around a third of children (and often yours truly) eat fast food daily.

该研究的作者们表示这很重要，因为大约三分之一的儿童每天都要吃快餐。

The researchers collected 400 wrappers, mostly from Washington State, eastern Massachusetts, western Michigan, northern California, and metropolitan Washington, DC, from the 27 largest fast food chains, like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Panera. They shot light particles, called photons, at each sample for around three minutes, and then watched for a characteristic gamma-ray signature that fluorine would emit.

研究人员们收集了400个包装纸，其中大部分来自美国华盛顿州、马萨诸塞州东部、密歇根州西部、加利福尼亚州北部和华盛顿特区大城市的27家大型快餐连锁店，比如麦当劳、温迪汉堡和帕尼罗面包。研究人员们将光子持续射向每个样本三分钟，之后观察氟释放出来的伽马射线特征。

Cups and wrappers that didn’t touch food didn’t contain any fluorine. But around a third of all of the pieces of trash, including half of the samples of paper that came in direct contact with food, contained levels of fluorine far higher than the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food’s guidelines. The researchers measured at least 60 micrograms of fluorine per gram in paper wrappers, and 14 micrograms of fluorine per gram in cardboard packaging.

没有接触食物的杯子和包装纸不含任何氟。但大约有三分之一用过的包装纸中含有氟，其含量远高于丹麦环境和食品部的要求。研究人员们测出包装纸至少含有每克60毫克氟，而包装纸盒中含有每克14毫克氟。

You shouldn’t freak out too much about this, especially since you’ve already decided to eat something we all know bolsters our chances of obesity and other diseases. The study does note that some of the fluorine-containing products didn’t have PFASs, meaning the fluorine could have come from other chemicals. Plus, “It’s really difficult to make that link between what we were finding in the packaging, and how that might affect someone’s health,” first author Laurel Schaider from Harvard University and the Silent Spring Institute told the Chicago Tribune. “PFAS are a complex category.”

对此你也不必太害怕，毕竟你都已经决定吃那些让我们发胖和生病的垃圾食品了。该研究还指出某些含有氟的产品中不含全氟烷基物质，这意味着里面的氟可能来自其它化学物质。此外，我们很难将包装纸里面的东西和它们对人们的影响挂钩起来。来自哈佛大学和寂静春天研究所的第一作者Laurel Schaider表示：“全氟烷基物质是一个复杂的分类。”

She’s not kidding. Fast food companies used to include long-chain PFAS—so called because the molecules literally consist of a long chain of carbon with fluorine atoms on the end—in their packaging. Most companies have voluntarily switched to the shorter chain varieties due to health concerns, but scientists haven’t determined that shorter chain PFAS are risk-free either, according to a report by the Verge. The new study does suggest the shorter chain molecules could pass into food more easily.

她没有在开玩笑。快餐公司一般使用含有长链全氟烷基物质的包装，后来大部分公司出于健康担忧转而采用较短链的包装。可科学家们并不觉得短链全氟烷基物质完全没有风险，新研究认为短链分子更容易渗入食物中。

Here’s another reason to not eat fast food. I will probably continue to eat fast food.

现在又有理由不吃快餐了，但我可能还是会继续去吃。