Information about Dioxins from John Hopkins website

[Guest guest]

Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water

> Bottles

>

> Rolf Halden, PhD, PE

> The Internet has been flooded with email warnings to

> avoid freezing

> water in plastic bottles so as not to get exposed to

> carcinogenic

> dioxins. Recently, one hoax email has been

> attributed to Johns Hopkins

> University. The Office of Communications and Public

> Affairs discussed

> the issue with Rolf Halden,

> <http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?F=Rolf&L=Halden>

> PhD, PE, assistant professor in the Department of

> Environmental Health

> Sciences <http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/index.html>

> and the Center for

> Water and Health

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/Centers/WaterandHealth/index.html>

> at

> the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

> Dr. Halden received

> his masters and doctoral degrees researching dioxin

> contamination in the

> environment. We sat down with him to set the record

> straight on dioxins

> in the food supply and the risks associated with

> drinking water from

> plastic bottles and cooking with plastics

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/halden_plastics.html>

> .

> Office of Communications and Public Affairs: What

> are dioxins?

> Rolf Halden: Dioxins are organic environmental

> pollutants sometimes

> referred to as the most toxic compounds made by

> mankind. They are a

> group of chemicals, which include 75 different

> chlorinated molecules of

> dibenzo-p-dioxin and 135 chlorinated dibenzofurans.

> Some polychlorinated

> biphenyls (PCBs) also are referred to as dioxin-like

> compounds. Exposure

> to dioxins can cause chloracne, a severe form of

> skin disease, as well

> as reproductive and developmental effects, and more

> importantly, liver

> damage and cancer.

> OC&PA: Where do dioxins come from?

> RH: We always thought dioxins were man-made

> compounds produced

> inadvertently during the bleaching of pulp and

> manufacturing of

> pesticides like Agent Orange and other chlorinated

> aromatics. But

> dioxins in sediments from lakes and oceans predate

> these human

> activities. It is now generally accepted that a

> principal source of

> dioxins are various combustion processes, including

> natural events such

> as wild fires and even volcanic eruptions.

> Today, the critical issue is the incineration of

> waste, particularly the

> incineration of hospital waste, which contains a

> great deal of polyvinyl

> chloride plastics and aromatic compounds that can

> serve as dioxin

> precursors. One study examined the burning of

> household trash in drums

> in the backyard. It turns out that these small

> burnings of debris can

> put out as much or more dioxins as a full-sized

> incinerator burning

> hundreds of tons of refuse per day. The incinerators

> are equipped with

> state-of-the-art emission controls that limit dioxin

> formation and their

> release into the environment, but the backyard trash

> burning does not.

> You set it ablaze and chemistry takes over. What

> happens next is that

> the dioxins are sent into the atmosphere where they

> become attached to

> particles and fall back to earth. Then they bind to,

> or are taken up, by

> fish and other animals, where they get concentrated

> and stored in fat

> before eventually ending up on our lunch and dinner

> plates. People are

> exposed to them mostly from eating meat and fish

> rich in fat.

> OC&PA: What do you make of this recent email warning

> that claims dioxins

> can be released by freezing water in plastic

> bottles?

> RH: No. This is an urban legend. There are no

> dioxins in plastics. In

> addition, freezing actually works against the

> release of chemicals.

> Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold

> temperatures, which would

> limit chemical release if there were dioxins in

> plastic, and we don't

> think there are.

> OC&PA: So it's okay for people to drink out of

> plastic water bottles?

> RH: First, people should be more concerned about the

> quality of the

> water they are drinking rather than the container

> it's coming from. Many

> people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water,

> so they buy bottled

> water instead. The truth is that city water is much

> more highly

> regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water

> is not. It can

> legally contain many things we would not tolerate in

> municipal drinking

> water.

> Having said this, there is another group of

> chemicals, called phthalates

> that are sometimes added to plastics to make them

> flexible and less

> brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants

> that can exhibit

> hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine

> disruptors in humans and

> animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase

> the leaching of

> phthalates from the containers into water and food.

> OC&PA: What about cooking with plastics?

> RH: In general, whenever you heat something you

> increase the likelihood

> of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released

> from plastic

> packaging materials like the kinds used in some

> microwave meals. Some

> drinking straws say on the label "not for hot

> beverages." Most people

> think the warning is because someone might be

> burned. If you put that

> straw into a boiling cup of hot coffee, you

> basically have a hot water

> extraction going on, where the chemicals in the

> straw are being

> extracted into your nice cup of coffee. We use the

> same process in the

> lab to extract chemicals from materials we want to

> analyze.

> If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic

> utensils, the best

> thing to do is to follow the directions and only use

> plastics that are

> specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are

> best, for example

> heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old

> stainless steel.

> OC&PA: Is there anything else you want to add?

> RH: Don't be afraid of drinking water. It is very

> important to drink

> adequate amounts of water and, by the way that's in

> addition to all the

> coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume.

> Unless you are

> drinking really bad water, you are more likely to

> suffer from the

> adverse effects of dehydration than from the

> minuscule amounts of

> chemical contaminants present in your water supply.

> Relatively speaking,

> the risk from exposure to microbial contaminants is

> much greater than

> that from chemicals.

> And here's one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us

> already carries a

> certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and

> what we eat. If you

> look hard enough, you'll find traces of dioxins in

> pretty much every

> place on earth. Paracelsus the famous medieval

> alchemist, used to put it

> straight and simple: it's the dose that makes the

> poison.--Tim Parsons ,Researcher Dispels Myth of

Dioxins and Plastic Water

> Bottles

>

> Rolf Halden, PhD, PE

> The Internet has been flooded with email warnings to

> avoid freezing

> water in plastic bottles so as not to get exposed to

> carcinogenic

> dioxins. Recently, one hoax email has been

> attributed to Johns Hopkins

> University. The Office of Communications and Public

> Affairs discussed

> the issue with Rolf Halden,

> <http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?F=Rolf&L=Halden>

> PhD, PE, assistant professor in the Department of

> Environmental Health

> Sciences <http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/index.html>

> and the Center for

> Water and Health

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/Centers/WaterandHealth/index.html>

> at

> the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

> Dr. Halden received

> his masters and doctoral degrees researching dioxin

> contamination in the

> environment. We sat down with him to set the record

> straight on dioxins

> in the food supply and the risks associated with

> drinking water from

> plastic bottles and cooking with plastics

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/halden_plastics.html>

> .

> Office of Communications and Public Affairs: What

> are dioxins?

> Rolf Halden: Dioxins are organic environmental

> pollutants sometimes

> referred to as the most toxic compounds made by

> mankind. They are a

> group of chemicals, which include 75 different

> chlorinated molecules of

> dibenzo-p-dioxin and 135 chlorinated dibenzofurans.

> Some polychlorinated

> biphenyls (PCBs) also are referred to as dioxin-like

> compounds. Exposure

> to dioxins can cause chloracne, a severe form of

> skin disease, as well

> as reproductive and developmental effects, and more

> importantly, liver

> damage and cancer.

> OC&PA: Where do dioxins come from?

> RH: We always thought dioxins were man-made

> compounds produced

> inadvertently during the bleaching of pulp and

> manufacturing of

> pesticides like Agent Orange and other chlorinated

> aromatics. But

> dioxins in sediments from lakes and oceans predate

> these human

> activities. It is now generally accepted that a

> principal source of

> dioxins are various combustion processes, including

> natural events such

> as wild fires and even volcanic eruptions.

> Today, the critical issue is the incineration of

> waste, particularly the

> incineration of hospital waste, which contains a

> great deal of polyvinyl

> chloride plastics and aromatic compounds that can

> serve as dioxin

> precursors. One study examined the burning of

> household trash in drums

> in the backyard. It turns out that these small

> burnings of debris can

> put out as much or more dioxins as a full-sized

> incinerator burning

> hundreds of tons of refuse per day. The incinerators

> are equipped with

> state-of-the-art emission controls that limit dioxin

> formation and their

> release into the environment, but the backyard trash

> burning does not.

> You set it ablaze and chemistry takes over. What

> happens next is that

> the dioxins are sent into the atmosphere where they

> become attached to

> particles and fall back to earth. Then they bind to,

> or are taken up, by

> fish and other animals, where they get concentrated

> and stored in fat

> before eventually ending up on our lunch and dinner

> plates. People are

> exposed to them mostly from eating meat and fish

> rich in fat.

> OC&PA: What do you make of this recent email warning

> that claims dioxins

> can be released by freezing water in plastic

> bottles?

> RH: No. This is an urban legend. There are no

> dioxins in plastics. In

> addition, freezing actually works against the

> release of chemicals.

> Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold

> temperatures, which would

> limit chemical release if there were dioxins in

> plastic, and we don't

> think there are.

> OC&PA: So it's okay for people to drink out of

> plastic water bottles?

> RH: First, people should be more concerned about the

> quality of the

> water they are drinking rather than the container

> it's coming from. Many

> people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water,

> so they buy bottled

> water instead. The truth is that city water is much

> more highly

> regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water

> is not. It can

> legally contain many things we would not tolerate in

> municipal drinking

> water.

> Having said this, there is another group of

> chemicals, called phthalates

> that are sometimes added to plastics to make them

> flexible and less

> brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants

> that can exhibit

> hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine

> disruptors in humans and

> animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase

> the leaching of

> phthalates from the containers into water and food.

> OC&PA: What about cooking with plastics?

> RH: In general, whenever you heat something you

> increase the likelihood

> of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released

> from plastic

> packaging materials like the kinds used in some

> microwave meals. Some

> drinking straws say on the label "not for hot

> beverages." Most people

> think the warning is because someone might be

> burned. If you put that

> straw into a boiling cup of hot coffee, you

> basically have a hot water

> extraction going on, where the chemicals in the

> straw are being

> extracted into your nice cup of coffee. We use the

> same process in the

> lab to extract chemicals from materials we want to

> analyze.

> If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic

> utensils, the best

> thing to do is to follow the directions and only use

> plastics that are

> specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are

> best, for example

> heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old

> stainless steel.

> OC&PA: Is there anything else you want to add?

> RH: Don't be afraid of drinking water. It is very

> important to drink

> adequate amounts of water and, by the way that's in

> addition to all the

> coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume.

> Unless you are

> drinking really bad water, you are more likely to

> suffer from the

> adverse effects of dehydration than from the

> minuscule amounts of

> chemical contaminants present in your water supply.

> Relatively speaking,

> the risk from exposure to microbial contaminants is

> much greater than

> that from chemicals.

> And here's one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us

> already carries a

> certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and

> what we eat. If you

> look hard enough, you'll find traces of dioxins in

> pretty much every

> place on earth. Paracelsus the famous medieval

> alchemist, used to put it

> straight and simple: it's the dose that makes the

> poison.--Tim Parsons Researcher Dispels Myth of

Dioxins and Plastic Water

> Bottles

>

> Rolf Halden, PhD, PE

> The Internet has been flooded with email warnings to

> avoid freezing

> water in plastic bottles so as not to get exposed to

> carcinogenic

> dioxins. Recently, one hoax email has been

> attributed to Johns Hopkins

> University. The Office of Communications and Public

> Affairs discussed

> the issue with Rolf Halden,

> <http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?F=Rolf&L=Halden>

> PhD, PE, assistant professor in the Department of

> Environmental Health

> Sciences <http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/index.html>

> and the Center for

> Water and Health

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/EHS/Centers/WaterandHealth/index.html>

> at

> the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

> Dr. Halden received

> his masters and doctoral degrees researching dioxin

> contamination in the

> environment. We sat down with him to set the record

> straight on dioxins

> in the food supply and the risks associated with

> drinking water from

> plastic bottles and cooking with plastics

>

<http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/halden_plastics.html>

> .

> Office of Communications and Public Affairs: What

> are dioxins?

> Rolf Halden: Dioxins are organic environmental

> pollutants sometimes

> referred to as the most toxic compounds made by

> mankind. They are a

> group of chemicals, which include 75 different

> chlorinated molecules of

> dibenzo-p-dioxin and 135 chlorinated dibenzofurans.

> Some polychlorinated

> biphenyls (PCBs) also are referred to as dioxin-like

> compounds. Exposure

> to dioxins can cause chloracne, a severe form of

> skin disease, as well

> as reproductive and developmental effects, and more

> importantly, liver

> damage and cancer.

> OC&PA: Where do dioxins come from?

> RH: We always thought dioxins were man-made

> compounds produced

> inadvertently during the bleaching of pulp and

> manufacturing of

> pesticides like Agent Orange and other chlorinated

> aromatics. But

> dioxins in sediments from lakes and oceans predate

> these human

> activities. It is now generally accepted that a

> principal source of

> dioxins are various combustion processes, including

> natural events such

> as wild fires and even volcanic eruptions.

> Today, the critical issue is the incineration of

> waste, particularly the

> incineration of hospital waste, which contains a

> great deal of polyvinyl

> chloride plastics and aromatic compounds that can

> serve as dioxin

> precursors. One study examined the burning of

> household trash in drums

> in the backyard. It turns out that these small

> burnings of debris can

> put out as much or more dioxins as a full-sized

> incinerator burning

> hundreds of tons of refuse per day. The incinerators

> are equipped with

> state-of-the-art emission controls that limit dioxin

> formation and their

> release into the environment, but the backyard trash

> burning does not.

> You set it ablaze and chemistry takes over. What

> happens next is that

> the dioxins are sent into the atmosphere where they

> become attached to

> particles and fall back to earth. Then they bind to,

> or are taken up, by

> fish and other animals, where they get concentrated

> and stored in fat

> before eventually ending up on our lunch and dinner

> plates. People are

> exposed to them mostly from eating meat and fish

> rich in fat.

> OC&PA: What do you make of this recent email warning

> that claims dioxins

> can be released by freezing water in plastic

> bottles?

> RH: No. This is an urban legend. There are no

> dioxins in plastics. In

> addition, freezing actually works against the

> release of chemicals.

> Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold

> temperatures, which would

> limit chemical release if there were dioxins in

> plastic, and we don't

> think there are.

> OC&PA: So it's okay for people to drink out of

> plastic water bottles?

> RH: First, people should be more concerned about the

> quality of the

> water they are drinking rather than the container

> it's coming from. Many

> people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water,

> so they buy bottled

> water instead. The truth is that city water is much

> more highly

> regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water

> is not. It can

> legally contain many things we would not tolerate in

> municipal drinking

> water.

> Having said this, there is another group of

> chemicals, called phthalates

> that are sometimes added to plastics to make them

> flexible and less

> brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants

> that can exhibit

> hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine

> disruptors in humans and

> animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase

> the leaching of

> phthalates from the containers into water and food.

> OC&PA: What about cooking with plastics?

> RH: In general, whenever you heat something you

> increase the likelihood

> of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released

> from plastic

> packaging materials like the kinds used in some

> microwave meals. Some

> drinking straws say on the label "not for hot

> beverages." Most people

> think the warning is because someone might be

> burned. If you put that

> straw into a boiling cup of hot coffee, you

> basically have a hot water

> extraction going on, where the chemicals in the

> straw are being

> extracted into your nice cup of coffee. We use the

> same process in the

> lab to extract chemicals from materials we want to

> analyze.

> If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic

> utensils, the best

> thing to do is to follow the directions and only use

> plastics that are

> specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are

> best, for example

> heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old

> stainless steel.

> OC&PA: Is there anything else you want to add?

> RH: Don't be afraid of drinking water. It is very

> important to drink

> adequate amounts of water and, by the way that's in

> addition to all the

> coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume.

> Unless you are

> drinking really bad water, you are more likely to

> suffer from the

> adverse effects of dehydration than from the

> minuscule amounts of

> chemical contaminants present in your water supply.

> Relatively speaking,

> the risk from exposure to microbial contaminants is

> much greater than

> that from chemicals.

> And here's one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us

> already carries a

> certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and

> what we eat. If you

> look hard enough, you'll find traces of dioxins in

> pretty much every

> place on earth. Paracelsus the famous medieval

> alchemist, used to put it

> straight and simple: it's the dose that makes the

> poison.--Tim Parsons ,Public Affairs media contacts

for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public healths