There is a great deal of information to keep in one's head as a parent. Managing food, moods, bodily functions (fun!), and activities is enough to keep your head spinning.
Through the years I have done lots of research on plastics. Which ones to avoid, which ones to use if you must, etc. At times, though, my memory fails and I ask myself, which number plastic means what? So, listed below, are some resources for helping navigate the plastic jungle.
This guide from CHEC is a great short summary of what plastics to avoid (well, all of them, but at times this is not practical!) and it has great tips for dealing with packages and food storage.
Shopper's Guide to Plastics and Food
Here is another guide that is worth printing out and putting on your fridge. For sleep deprived parents, the products in RED are the ones to avoid.
Plastic Products at a Glance
And as a rule, it isn't a good idea, ever, to microwave plastic. The heating causes the chemicals in the plastic to leach into the food. The is helped by the fat in the food, which expedites the process. Click here for more information.
Yikes! Did you know that plastic "cling wrap" is made from PVC (aka: the poison plastic)? Read here for an article about this, and visit here for tons of information about PVC, which is in countless products for children and the home (including many building plumbing and building materials). You can tell a plastic is PVC when it is labeled with the #3. PVC can contain lead, and uses a number of troublesome chemicals called phthalates to make the plastic soft. These phthalates are endocrine disruptors which have been linked to problems in the development of the male reproductive system and the brain development of infants.
Don't have time to read the links? Here is the quick, tired-I've-got-other-things to-do version:
Avoid: Plastics labeled #3, #6, #7
Safer Plastics (notice I didn't say safe-): #1, #2, #4, #5
Never microwave plastic, limit putting it in the dishwasher
Don't use plastic cling wrap, or if you do, don't let it touch your food.
How's that for boiling it down? Writing this helped me refresh my mind about plastics, and I hope it was of some help to you, too.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Plastic Safety Information (a tired parent's refresher)--
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
HOW ABOUT FREEZING IN PLASTIC, AS IN BREAST MILK?
Heather,
I had wondered about that too. I found out that Mendela bags are BPA and DEHP (in PVC plastic) free (hooray!) I have yet to look into the other brands but plan to. I'll post or comment when I find out. Thanks for the comment!
You and your readers have well-justified concerns about the estrogenic activity (EA) released from plastics that have been know to cause adverse health problems. While estrogens (the female sex hormones) occur naturally in the body, many scientific studies have shown that significant health problems can occur when chemicals are ingested that mimic or block the actions of these female sex hormones; the fetus, newborn, or young child is especially vulnerable. These health-related problems (some of which you mentioned in your article) include early puberty in females, reduced sperm counts in males, altered functions of reproductive organs, obesity, altered behaviors, and increased rates of some breast, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancers.
However, avoiding plastics that contain BPA or phthalates (or VNC plastics) does not mean that you safe from ingesting chemicals in plastics that have EA. BPA and phthalates are just two of several thousand chemicals that exhibit EA. These chemicals leach from almost all plastics sold today, including some of the “safer” plastics you mentioned – polyethylene (HDPE or LDPE), polypropylene and PET. That is, plastics advertised as BPA-free or phthalate-free are not EA-free; almost all these plastics still leach chemicals having EA – and often have more total EA than plastics that release BPA or phthalates.
Various plastics manufacturers are attempting to solve this problem by removing chemicals having EA (e.g., BPA, phthalates) one at a time. This approach is not an appropriate solution because hundreds of chemicals used in plastics exhibit EA, not just BPA and phthalates. This is a marketing-driven solution, not a health-driven solution. The appropriate health-driven solution is to manufacture safer plastics that are EA-free. This is not a pie-in-the-sky solution, as the technology already exists to produce EA-free plastics that also have the same advantageous physical properties. In fact, some of these advanced-technology EA-free plastics are already in the marketplace and many more EA-Free plastic items could be commercially available quickly -- if consumers were to demand them.
George D. Bittner, PhD
Professor of Biology,
The University of Texas at Austin
Founder: CertiChem, PlastiPure
Post a Comment