PVC for packaging tested

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34146, 6 May 1976, Page 16

PVC for packaging tested

The Health Department is sure that New Zealanders are not in danger from contamination of foods by polyvinyl chloride in plastic packaging, according to the department’s superviser of foods (Mr J. S. Fraser). Asked to comment on concern overseas that analyses had shown that vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing chemical, “leaked” from packaging into such substances as sandwiches, meats, and liquor, Mr Fraser said from Wellington yesterday that Department of Scientific and Industrial Research testing of all PVC monomer imported into New Zealand, and the rigid imposition of a maximum of 50 parts of PVC monomer per billion parts of other plastic, ensured that such packaging was as safe as possible. Because the raw material was tested before being used to make packaging, the department did not have to check PVC levels in New Zealand-made packaging; nor was it necessary to check regularly how much PVC was migrating into, for example, supermarket meats wrapped in the material. Because all New Zealand’s PVC monomer was imported, it was possible to check all the raw material with a spectrometer, and this country did not therefore share the problems of, say, the United States, where safety levels were difficult to supervise.