Equine Health Update Issue 1 Volume 16 | Page 11

it is that dogs can be so remarkably good at tuning into the feelings of their human owners. “This method offers a totally new way of investigating neural processing in dogs,” Andics says. “At last we begin to understand how our best friend is looking at us and navigating in our social environment.” Food packaging chemicals may be harmful to human health over long term Synthetic chemicals used in the packaging, storage, and processing of foodstuffs might be harmful to human health over the long term, warn environmental scientists in a commentary in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. This is because most of these substances are not inert and can leach into the foods we eat, they say. Despite the fact that some of these chemicals are regulated, people who eat packaged or processed foods are likely to be chronically exposed to low levels of these substances throughout their lives, say the authors. And far too little is known about their long term impact, including at crucial stages of human development, such as in the womb, which is “surely not justified on scientific grounds,” the authors claim. They point out that lifelong exposure to food contact materials or FCMs - subst [