Greg Doyon

HEXANE? IN MY VEGGIE BURGER?

OUTLINE

Hexane

Hexane Exposure Routes

Health Effects

RfC and SF

Why is Hexane in my veggie burger?

Verdict

WHAT IS HEXANE?

Peripheral Neurotoxin – Dying Back

Hydrocarbon; C6H14

Colorless and odorless Liquid

Used in formation of glues for shoes, leather products, and roofing. Occupational settings are dangerous for chronic exposure.

Used in extracting oils from seeds

Obtained by refining crude oil

HEXANE EXPOSURE PATHWAYS

Inhalation – Hexane in gasoline can be inhaled at Gas Stations while filling up your car. Sniffing glue, inks, degreasing equipment. Most common exposure route. Most common exposure location is the occupational setting.

Dermal – Spilling gasoline on yourself. Glues or degreaser getting on skin.

Ingestion – Eating or drinking something contaminated with hexane.

HEXANE TOXICITY HEALTH EFFECTS

Acute:

Inhalation: Mild CNS depression. CNS effects include dizziness, slight nausea, and headache. High, sniffing glues.

Dermatitis and irritation of the eyes and throat

Chronic:

Sensorimotor polyneuropathy in humans, with numbness in the extremities, muscular weakness, blurred vision, headache, and fatigue observed

Rat and Rabbit studies: Neurotoxin Effects, inflammation and erosiveness in respiratory epithelium.

HEXANE TOXICITY HEALTH EFFECTS

Current Estimated RfC: .7 mg/m3

No SF as EPA has classified it in Group D: Unclassifiable based on lack of data.

HEXANE INHALATION STUDY

Progressive sensorimotor neuropathy developed in two patients exposed to chronic inhalation of hexane glue sniffing.

Nerve biopsies showed loss of axons; remaining axons were either normal or showed accumulation of filaments

The muscle biopsy revealed neurogenic atrophy. Intramuscular nerve twigs and end-plates, studied in one patient, showed loss of axons and nerve terminals. (1)

SOY PROCESSORS

Soy processors use hexane to divide fat and protein.

Soy beans are cracked, heated, and rolled into flakes which are then soaked in hexane to extract the oil.

Oil and defatted flakes are each steamed to evaporate the hexane.

Hexane isn’t completely removed and can remain in oil which turns into vegetable oil. Defatted soy flakes are further processed into a variety of foods, including veggie burgers.

SHOULD I STOP EATING VEGGIE BURGERS?

Scientists fed about 500 mg of hexane to lab rats for 90 days and found no adverse effects.

If veggie burgers were to lose none of the volatile hexane during cooking, it would take more than “353,000 veggie burgers a day to reach that level, adjusted for human body weight.”

“At 2,000 mg of the solvent over the 90-day period, the rats started to show some neurological problems. That's about 1.4 million veggie burgers per person, per day.” (2)

Conclusion: You’re Safe, no need to worry.

REFERENCES

(1) http://www.neurology.org/content/26/3/238.short

(2) http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/04/is_your_veggie_burger_killing_you.html