The JRC – hosting the European Reference Laboratory on Food Contact Materials – contributed to a study to showing the impact of the nature of food in its "attractiveness" to contaminants from plastic packaging. The focus was on the migration of the chemical compound benzophenone from low-density polyethylene. The study revealed how specific foods and packaging polymers interact (mathematics of transfer of components from packaging into foods) to better predict migration and ultimately exposure to chemicals from food contact materials.

Water for drinking, home and public use, as well as for agriculture and industry is provided for free by Mother Nature or, as scientists and policy-makers put it, by ecosystem services. A study led by the JRC puts the benefits of this "free" service at €16 billion a year at European level, a conservative estimate in terms of actual consumption by economic sectors and households.

In a collaborative effort, the JRC and three European partner organisations gathered lacking knowledge necessary to develop predictive in vitro tests that can identify the risk for the development of cumulative dose-dependent cardiotoxicity of cancer patients treated with anthracyclines.

Further information: Assessing drug-induced cardiotoxicity in vitro