Domanda: Sono contenitori in plastica per alimenti e bevande dimostrati sicuri?
Risposta: No.
Durante la festa di laurea del film in il laureato, Mr McGuire tira Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) da parte di offrire consulenza salvia per il suo futuro. Suo futuro sarebbe una sola parola: "plastica".
Naturalmente, sappiamo tutti consigli di Mr McGuire e pronostico è stato corretto. Materie plastiche possono essere effettuate solo da uomo, nella sua infinita saggezza, quindi sono brevettabili. Il profitto nella fabbricazione di materie plastiche è stato enorme. Materie plastiche sono ovunque. Produzione plastica ora utilizza il 4% della produzione di petrolio del mondo ogni anno. Automobili sono ora 9% di plastica. Della mia preoccupazione speciale che più alimenti e bevande vengono messi in contenitori di plastica. Materie plastiche sono ormai onnipresente. Essi persistono eaccumulate in our society as their production exceeds their chemical degradation rate. Harmful chemicals from plastics are now commonly found in groundwater, waterways, and drinking water.
While standing out in the summer heat in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981, my girlfriend asked me what was causing the film to form on the inside of the windshield of her new Mazda 626. She said that she had to wipe it off every morning so she could see to drive to work. I didn't know then. I do now! It was phthalates, the chemical that was added to the plastic dash cover to soften it and prevent cracking. I'm sure by now most of the phthalate has evaporated into our atmosphere and the Mazda is in some junkyard with a cracked up dash.
Phthalates are EDC's (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.) They are chemicals found in recycle codes #1 through #6 plastics. Another EDC (Bisphenol A) is in recycle code #7 plastics. All of these types of plastic EDC's interfere with the function of sex hormones receptors. In THE GRADUATE Benjamin was quite a stud. I wonder if he's now taking one of the popular drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, a disorder that has become one of the many epidemics in our new plastic world.
In 2003 a group of Croatian scientists reported that phthalates in plastics dissolved in various solutions. They used a variety of plastic items, including plastic food containers. After 10 days of sitting in distilled water, an average of 55.4 mg/ of phthalates from each kilogram of plastic "migrated" into the water. To a lesser degree the phthalates from plastics dissolved into acetic acid 3% (44.4 mg/kg) and 10% ethyl alcohol (32.3 mg/kg).
The Croatian study shows what Benjamin would suspect, if he took chemistry in college: Water is the universal solvent; and it dissolves even the primarily fat soluble phthalates. The more that you filter water to remove other toxic solutes, the more aggressive water becomes in its power to reach osmolar equilibrium by dissolving its non-inert containers.
What is also obviously missing from the Croatians' controlled, static testing model are the temperature variations that the plastic bottled water product goes through to get from bottling point to the mouth of the consumer. Transport trucks probably reach a very high temperature in the non refrigerated cargo areas that carry PETE (recycle code #1 plastic) bottled water in the summer. Heat facilitates the dissolution of phthalates into the water. Then the bottles may be stored for a much longer time than 10 days prior to consumption. Furthermore, freezing the containers produces micro-fissures in the interior surface of the plastic bottle container as the water expands, exponentially exposing more solute surface area. Traumatic handling or any motion of the package will further enhance diffusion. Applying the laws of physics, all of these factors clearly by extrapolation will increase the water dissolution of the plastic containers.
Fatty foods in plastic containers are even more problematic, as fats are absorbed differently and carry their phthalate solvents into our bodies more easily. Phthalates bio-accumulate because of their fat solubility. Phthalates concentrate in such fat organs in our bodies such as brains, prostates, testicles, ovaries, breasts and, unfortunately, breast milk. (The other popular food alternatives for infants are worse. Commercial baby formulas are loaded with the manmade phthalates.)
I think the worst example of food containment in plastic is milk. All milk except non-fat milk contains fat. Cow milk itself represents a major source of the fats ingested by the public, especially children. Cattle concentrate these chemicals by bioaccummulation because EDC's from plastics are ubiquitous in water and most animal food sources. Meat and dairy products are therefore a major contributor to this group of human food chain derived toxins, regardless of their containment. It is now irresponsible per aggiungere ulteriori phathalates ai prodotti mettendo i prodotti lattiero-caseari in contenitori di plastica che aggiungono ulteriori EDC.
Bovini hanno intentially stato "ingrassati" con l'aggiunta di ormoni e unintentially "ingrassati" più dalla contaminazione di bestiame cibo e acqua da EDC. La combinazione di queste sostanze chimiche sono passate su ai consumatori in forma concentrata in prodotti lattiero-caseari aggraverà probabilmente obesità negli esseri umani che li consumano pure.
Il nostro attuale scientifica conoscenza e il senso comune urla per porre fine all'acquisto dei consumatori di latte in bottiglia in plastica. Fino a quando il latte aziende hanno il loro quantatatively di prodotti analizzati per questi EDC da laboratori indipendenti competenti, la mia forte raccomandazione è per evitare l'acquisto e il consumo di latte e prodotti contenuti inplastica.
Purtroppo, le conclusioni del 2003 degli autori croato circa la sicurezza di materie plastiche sono stati: "questi livelli (esposizione) potrebbe non presentare un pericolo per la salute umana, nemmeno per un periodo prolungato di tempo." Tuttavia, ciò che è stato ritenuto livelli accettabili di ftalati nel 2003 ora è riconosciuto come "crystal chiaramente" troppo alto.
Interpretazioni selettive da ACC (Consiglio americano di chimica) portano a questo erroneamente alto livello sta "set" per ultimi standard di tossicità. L'ACC è un consulente "industry group". È molto come il lupo guardia del pollaio. Grazie agli sforzi ACC, regolamenti di controllo posizionati su questa classe chimica sono minimi. Un continuo perpetuarsi di ftalato approvazione per uso in praticamente tutto, compreso il contenimento di cibo, ha provocato. In realtà, ilperpetuation of these mythological high safety standards has resulted in the majority of our food being wrapped or contained in plastics that leach EDC's into our foods.
The ACC's Phthalate Esters Panel is made up representatives from BASF, Eastman Chemical, Exxon-Mobil Chemical, Ferro, and Teknor Apex Corporations. After graduating, Benjamin could have gone to work for any of these companies to share the wealth that plastics manufacturing have reaped, instead of hanging around and sporting Mrs. Robinson for the summer!
I love one of the rationalization examples the ACC makes on their PHTHALATES INFORMATION CENTER webpage: "Thanks to phthalates, your nail polish doesn't chip." I wonder if they are aware of the "unexplained" high rate of breast cancer in manicurists. I also chiedo se sono consapevoli che la maggior parte dei tessuti del seno e tumori al seno hanno recettori di ormoni sessuali che sono agiti su dall'EDC trovano in materie plastiche.
Per confondere ulteriormente il pubblico, la pagina Web ACC ridefinisce anche il principio di precauzione, che nella sua definizione un-perverted è semplicemente: un (chimico) non dovrebbe essere considerato sicuro fino a quando non si è dimostrato sicuro. Gli ambientalisti che stanno cercando di svelare le relazioni di causa-effetto di sostanze chimiche di ambiente, a altrimenti inspiegabile epidemie di varie malattie, colpendo l'uomo, come pure ogni specie sul nostro pianeta, incoraggiare la sua applicazione. L'ACC è annacquato versione suggerisce che il costo effettivo, impavidi rischi sono vale la pena prendere.
Può l'ACC mantenere l'illusione della sicurezza ftalato per sempre? L'associazione American Tobaccoalmost got away with it!
We now know that EDC's, like hormones themselves require very minute amounts to have physiologic impact. EDC's are active in parts per trillion! For example, the usual adult maintenance dose of levothyroxine, a drug to replace depleted natural thyroid hormone in hypothyroidism, is 1.6 micrograms/Kg/day. Why would I even think about saying that a dose in the milligrams (1000 times as much as a microgram) of a known EDC would be safe, especially for a child or developing fetus?
We now know that phthalates also work in synergy with chemicals in other classes to exert "more than additive" physiologic effects.
Previous experiments in rodents showed that high levels of phthalates interfer with testosterone during gestation resulting in birth defects of the genitalia, testicular cancer, and infertility in the rats.
The ACC inspired acceptable level of phthalate myth should be blown out of the water with a recent study completed by the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. This study of 85 human infant boys reported in May 2005 showed that phthalate levels found normally in the general population adversely influenced sexual development. The phthalate exposure these children had correlated with smaller penis size and incomplete testicular descent, which is a condition that greatly increases the risk of testicular cancer if left untreated.
Solution 1 - Choose glass containers over plastic for purchase and storage of food and beverages including milk and water.
American children can consume several milligrams of phthalate each day.
I wonder if THE GRADUATE's Mr. Robinson noticed that most of the teenage girls now-days have bigger breasts than his seductive wife (gynecomastia), and that they begin thelarche (breast development) and menarche (menstruation) at a significantly younger age, or that many more have an endocrine pathology called PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome).
The chances of a woman getting breast cancer in her lifetime has probably gone from a risk of less than 1 in 10 (10%) before THE GRADUATE was made to a 1 in about 7.5 (13.2 %) rate today.
The choice to avoid food chain plastics is a "no-brainer" when you understand how these chemicals persist and accumulate in our environment, and how they function in our bodies!
Solution 2 - Choose stainless steel containers over plastic for storage of food and beverages including water.
Unfortunately, we are past the point of no return with phthalates. Just like
cigarettes I think we'll have to live as prisoners with their impact on future generations. The only defense we have at this time is to individually choose to avoid them when we can, to mitigate their effects on our health.
Phthalates clearly act upon hormone receptors in both men and women. A concern is the potential phthalate impact on breast and other hormone sensitive tissue in human females, but phthalate's demasculinizing potential on males is more of a threat to all species on the planet.
Unlike Mr. McGuire, I think we can choose a better future by avoiding his "one word." We should start by trying to ridurre le materie plastiche nella nostra catena alimentare le esposizioni.
Linea di fondo:
Consiglierei vivamente ai consumatori di acquistare bevande e cibo non solide prodotti confezionati in vetro, piuttosto che di plastica se data la scelta.
© Vita Dynamix 2005 tutti i diritti riservati
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