צ'יפס מסרטן

Public health attorneys in California have potato chip makers in their sights for not listing a cancer-causing chemical present in many brands. That chemical is acrylamide. It is an industrial chemical used in plastics, pesticides AND sewage treatment that also can occur when starchy foods, such as chips, are processed at high temperatures. The World Health Organization has said acrylamide may be responsible for up to one-third of all cancers caused by diet, as demonstrated by laboratory animal studies. Acrylamide is already on California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer, but some chipmakers haven't listed it on their product packaging as required by Proposition 65 statute. The attorneys have filed Proposition 65 notices with the manufacturers of Lays, Pringles, Kettle Chips AND Cape Cod chips. Research has shown those brands have unsafe levels of acrylamide in some of their chip varieties. The study looked at one ounce servings, which ranged from 11 to 20 chips depending on the brand, AND determined the acrylamide content was substantially more than the 0.2 micrograms per day amount which prompts the Proposition 65 warning. The brands tested AND cited for high levels of acrylamide are: Lay's Baked!, Lay's Stax BBQ, Lay's KC Masterpiece, Lay's Natural Country Barbecue, Lay's Light KC Barbecue Masterpiece, Pringles Snack Stacks (Pizzalicious Flavor), Pringles Sweet Mesquite BBQ, Kettle Chips Lightly Salted, Kettle Chips Honey Dijon, Cape Cod Robust Russet AND Cape Cod Classic Chips. Processed food manufacturers have reportedly asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a exemption to Proposition 65 labeling for foods with carcinogens caused by heat processing. The governor's office is expected to announce its decision by August.

1: Int J Cancer. 2003 Jul 1;105(4):558-60. s Comment in: Int J Cancer. 2004 Feb 10;108(4):634-5; author reply 636-7. Fried potatoes AND human cancer.Pelucchi C, Franceschi S, Levi F, Trichopoulos D, Bosetti C, Negri E, La Vecchia C. Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," Milano, Italy. A considerable public concern about cancer risk from acrylamide-rich foods followed the announcement that high concentrations of acrylamide are found in fried potatoes AND potato chips and, more generally, in starch-containing foods cooked at high temperatures. From a series of hospital-based case-control studies conducted in Italy AND Switzerland between 1991 AND 2000, we have analyzed the relation between intake of fried/baked potatoes AND cancer risk. The cancer sites considered were oral cavity AND pharynx (749 cases, 1772 controls), esophagus (395 cases, 1066 controls), larynx (527 cases, 1297 controls), large bowel (1225 colon AND 728 rectum cases, 4154 controls), breast (2569 cases, 2588 controls) AND ovary (1031 cases, 2411 controls). All cancer cases were incident AND histologically confirmed. Controls were subjects admitted to the same network of hospitals of cases for acute, non-neoplastic conditions. All the odds ratios (OR) for the highest vs. the lowest tertile of intake ranged between 0.8-1.1. We found no evidence of interaction with age, gender, alcohol AND tobacco use. Our data provide reassuring evidence for the lack of an important association between consumption of fried/baked potatoes AND cancer risk.