Microwave Popcorn Cancer: Does it Really Cause Cancer?

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Read on to learn the real story behind the claims about microwave popcorn and your health.

Yet a couple of chemicals in microwave popcorn and its packaging have been linked to negative health effects, including cancer and a dangerous lung condition.

Popcorn is also low in fat and high in fiber.

Popcorn is a ritual part of watching movies. You don’t need to go to the theater to indulge in a bucket of popcorn. Simply stick a bag in the microwave and wait a minute or so for those fluffy buds to pop open.

The possible link between microwave popcorn and cancer isn’t from the popcorn itself, but from chemicals called perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) that are in the bags. PFCs resist grease, making them ideal for preventing oil from seeping through popcorn bags.

PFCs have also been used in:

• pizza boxes
• sandwich wrappers
• Teflon pans
• other types of food packaging

The trouble with PFCs is that they break down into perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical that’s suspected to cause cancer.

These chemicals make their way into the popcorn when you heat them up. When you eat the popcorn, they get into your bloodstream and can remain in your body for a long time.

PFCs have been so widely used that about 98 percent of Americans already have this chemical in their blood. That’s why health experts have been trying to figure out whether PFCs are related to cancer or other diseases.

To find out how these chemicals might affect people, a group of researchers known as the C8 Science Panel studied the effects of PFOA exposure on residents who lived near DuPont’s Washington Works manufacturing plant in West Virginia.

The plant had been releasing PFOA into the environment since the 1950s.

After several years of research, the C8 researchers linked PFOA exposure to several health conditions in humans, including kidney cancer and testicular cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted its own review of PFOA from a range of sources, including microwave popcorn bags and nonstick food pans. It found that microwave popcorn could account for more than 20 percent of the average PFOA levels in Americans’ blood.

As a result of the research, food manufacturers voluntarily stopped using PFOA in their product bags in 2011. Five years later, the FDA went even further, banning the use of three other PFCs in food packaging. That means the popcorn you buy today shouldn’t contain these chemicals.

However, since the FDA’s review, dozens of new packaging chemicals have been introduced. According to the Environmental Working Group, little is known about the safety of these chemicals.