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SCREWCAPS’ CANCER RISK IDENTIFIED

Date: Mon 07 May 2007

Claims that there is no evidence of the health risks in Screwcaps’ plastic liners are at odds with research results from a trans-national study into a new method of measuring food contaminants. The study, on Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction (SBSE) identifies endocrine disruptors in wine samples from bottles closed with screwcaps, but not with cork.

Last week wine journalist and Truewines Digital Media Services editor, Keith Stewart authored a story in the influential New Zealand current affairs magazine, The Listener which questioned the safety of screwcapped wine as the plastic seals in the screwcaps have long been suspected of leaching endocrine disruptors (EDs) into the wine. EDs are strongly implicated in the current epidemic of breast and prostate cancer in Western nations.

However, New Zealand wine industry representatives denied any link on the basis that “there is no evidence [of ED leaching]. On the contrary, the evidence from the SBSE research is quite specific as to the role of screwcaps in ED leaching.

The mass spectra of these peaks also showed ion m/e 149 as specific ion, but these compounds could be identified as nonylphenols (Fig. 8). The profile of the nonylphenols detected in the wine samples corresponds to a technical nonylphenol standard mixture (analysed by thermal extraction).

These compounds are suspected endocrine disrupters. They were only detected in wine samples from bottles with a screw cap instead of a cork stopper. The origin of the contamination was a plastic sheet in the screw cap, as was demonstrated by the analysis of the sheet by direct thermal extraction. summarise the researchers.

The research was conducted by a team based in 3 countries; the Research Institute for Chromatography and the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, University of Gent in Belgium; the Department of Chemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa; and the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

“My concern is that this evidence came from research in 2000, yet when the Screwcap Initiative was launched in New Zealand in 2002 none of those involved had bothered to check the health risk of these closures,” says Keith Stewart. “Subsequently representative bodies such as New Zealand Winegrowers have been prepared to endorse the specious claims of the Screwcap Initiative’s closure promotion without concern for the best interests of public safety or those of the whole New Zealand wine industry, specifically those who reject the screwcap argument.”

“This is not an argument about which closure produces the best wine,” Stewart adds. “It is about public health, and the overwhelming advice from leaders in cancer research is to treat endocrine disruptors with extreme caution. Putting PVdC in direct contact with a solvent solution (wine) that through the action of alcohol takes EDs to numerous sites of cell in the human body is negligence. It is time for the Screwcap Initiative to admit their mistake and secure safer seals for the closures they are promoting.”

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