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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Hold the plastic: Consumers are ingesting more than they bargain for, through food packaging

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  • From: Sue Oberle <sue@oberlebotanical.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Hold the plastic: Consumers are ingesting more than they bargain for, through food packaging
  • Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:26:59 -0600

How about wax paper?

Sue Oberle
OBERLE BOTANICAL at Happy Heart Farm
Fort Collins, Colorado
970.581.5672
sue at oberlebotanical dot com
http://www.oberlebotanical.com
http://www.happyheartfarmcsa.com


Cindy C wrote:
229205.89877.qm@web38006.mail.mud.yahoo.com" type="cite">
Glass containors, butcher paper

Ask me about Mona-Vie,Change your Life!!
 
The Secret to Life is........BUTTER


--- On Sat, 8/15/09, Kate Spinner <kespinner@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Kate Spinner <kespinner@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Hold the plastic: Consumers are ingesting more than they bargain for, through food packaging
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 4:26 PM

What are some good alternatives to plastic storage containers, 
particularly for the freezer?

On Aug 15, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Tradingpost wrote:

>
> Hold the plastic: Consumers are ingesting more than they bargain 
> for, through food packaging
> http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Food/Hold-the-plastic
>
> Susan Meadows | For The New Mexican
>
> 8/11/2009 - 8/12/09
> Every time you pick up the newspaper it seems there is something 
> else you shouldn't eat. Remember when everyone switched to 
> margarine, except for those of us who thought it tasted like 
> spreadable plastic?
>
> And then there were those of us who didn't buy margarine who had the 
> last laugh — well, I didn't actually laugh because it was all too 
> sinister — when we learned that trans-fats (hydrogenated oils) 
> concocted in corporate laboratories made butter look like a health 
> food ... which it probably is in small amounts. Yet I watched people 
> like my parents eliminate every natural fat from their diet in their 
> quest to be healthier and to live longer. What disturbs me most, 
> however, is that I watch these same people (and I do mean you, Mom) 
> eating plastic on a regular basis. And in this case, I don't mean 
> butter substitutes. I mean plastic. And plastic is something you 
> shouldn't eat.
>
> Plastic alphabet soup
>
> Technically speaking, I mean plasticizers — small molecules, most of 
> which belong to a chemical group known collectively as phthalates — 
> which, besides being toxic, may win some sort of prize for its long 
> series of uninterrupted consonants. Plasticizers generally impart 
> flexibility to plastic. Without them, plastic would shatter like 
> glass. Bisphenol A or BPA is also a plasticizer — though not a 
> phthalate — but shares an important property with them that should 
> be discussed further. You've heard of BPA because Congress banned it 
> from children's toys a year ago. Recently I've noticed a lot of 
> stainless-steel water bottles back on the market, thanks to BPA. 
> Congress also banned six phthalates from those toys at the same 
> time; but no one seemed to notice.
>
> I started eliminating plastics from my kitchen about a decade ago. I 
> wasn't smarter than anyone else. I just had more information. Back 
> in the '80s, when I was a graduate student in the Toxicology 
> Department at the University of Arizona, phthalates were already 
> widely known to be 1) nearly ubiquitous environmental contaminants 
> routinely found in human urine, blood and milk, and 2) associated 
> with wide-ranging toxic effects — including cancer — when they were 
> tested individually in laboratory animal studies.
>
> We also know that phthalates, like BPA, don't stay in the plastic. 
> The EPA notes matter-of-factly that DEHP — the acronym for just one 
> of many phthalate plasticizers — "migrates from plastic into food 
> during processing and storage." Ever notice that warning about not 
> letting the plastic wrap touch food in the microwave? I bet you 
> ignore it. I bet like most people, including my mother, you wrap 
> food directly in plastic wrap and pop it in the microwave or the 
> refrigerator. You probably use plastic food-storage containers, 
> plastic microwave-safe dishes, plastic water bottles, plastic 
> utensils and cups, eat canned food (they are plastic-lined), and 
> drink milk that comes in plastic jugs.
>
> Why shouldn't you? Because phthalates and BPA belong to a large 
> group of compounds known as endocrine disrupters. They alter the 
> function of the endocrine system, which includes the reproductive 
> organs, the hypothalamus and the thyroid. In short, they act like 
> hormones.
>
> Hormones, as anyone who has ever seen a birth-control pill knows, 
> have very powerful effects at very low doses. As a contractor for 
> the EPA more than 10 years ago, I learned that endocrine disrupters 
> were emerging as a major bad-boy environmental contaminant — one 
> that might alter the ability of animals and plants to reproduce and 
> function normally. And endocrine disrupters are everywhere — in 
> pesticides, industrial chemicals and consumer products such as 
> plastics. We just don't know if effects that are suspected to be 
> occurring in nature as a result of these pollutants are also 
> occurring in humans from exposure to these compounds in our food.
>
> If the EPA and the FDA aren't worried yet, then why am I picking on 
> plasticizers in the kitchen? Why did I toss my Tupperware years ago? 
> After all, the whole topic is considered controversial. I have even 
> seen the problem dismissed as an urban legend on the Internet. As a 
> toxicologist, there are several facts that concern me:
>
> 1) We know broad exposure to plasticizers is occurring;
>
> 2) The potential for exposure to plasticizers from multiple sources 
> is very high to certain;
>
> 3) Plasticizers are demonstrated to have the type of toxic effect 
> (endocrine disruption) that requires only very low exposure levels;
>
> 4) There are at least 25 phthalates used in different products, but 
> EPA human-exposure limits are based on presumed exposure to one 
> single compound at a time;
>
> 5) Studies on the effects of simultaneous exposure to multiple 
> compounds — even prescription drugs — are rare, so we know virtually 
> nothing about the effect of this broad exposure to multiple 
> plasticizers;
>
> 6) The types of toxic effects found in animal studies of phthalates 
> are wide-ranging and serious;
>
> 7) High human levels of phthalates have been correlated with 
> obesity, heart disease, reproductive dysfunction and cancer — 
> diseases that some studies indicate are on the rise. While such 
> correlation does not prove cause and effect, it is disturbing.
>
> Saying no to plastics
>
> The bottom line for me is that I care what I eat. I mostly shop 
> organic or natural, and I buy mostly fresh, unprocessed food. If I 
> don't want to eat or feed my family and guests pesticides, extra 
> salt and other additives, then why would I knowingly eat or feed 
> anybody else plasticizers?
>
> Your kitchen is a laboratory. The traditional materials used in 
> laboratories are glass, ceramics and stainless steel, because these 
> materials are relatively inert and do not affect the results of 
> laboratory experiments, so they won't contaminate your food, either.
>
> A return to these once-traditional kitchen materials for our own 
> cooking and storage is the easy part. Convincing manufacturers that 
> we don't want plasticizers with our food — whether it's plastic-
> lined cans, canning lids, pizza boxes or butcher paper — will take 
> more work, but consumer demand will be the only thing that changes 
> the marketplace. That's what happened to bring about the sudden boon 
> of stainless-steel water bottles (ironically, many are plastic-
> lined) and the ban on certain plasticizers in toys.
>
> Ask questions. Be a demanding consumer. It was demanding consumers 
> who created the organic-food market. If you could say no to 
> pesticides, then you can say, "I don't want any plastic with that," 
> too.
>
>    More on plasticizers
>
>    If you are interested in this topic and would like more 
> information, the Endocrine Society — the professional organization 
> for endocrinology clinicians and researchers — published two 
> documents this year concerning endocrine-disrupting chemicals. They 
> are available to the public as downloadable pdf files online. See 
> EDC_Scientific_Statement.pdf and EDC_Policy_Statement.pdf at www.endo-society.org
> . BPA is directly referenced in the policy statement and BPA and 
> phthalates are discussed in detail in the scientific statement.
>
>
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