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Plastics: The Sixth Basic Food Group--An Important Part of Your Healthy Diet

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The Sixth Basic Food Group

This is advertising by the American Plastics Council

 

PLASTICS MAKE IT POSSIBLE™

 

Plastics: An Important Part Of Your Healthy Diet

You could think of them as . . .

 

Oh, you certainly wouldn't eat them, but plastic packaging does help protect our

food in many ways. To help lock in freshness, plastic wrap clings tightly to

surfaces. To help lock out moisture, resealable containers provide a strong

seal. And plastic wrap helps extend the shelf life of perishable produce,

poultry, fish and meats. To prevent spoilage and contamination, some varieties

of plastics help keep air out. While others let air in to help the food we eat

stay fresher longer. Plastics also let you see what you're buying, taking the

mystery out of shopping. All of which makes them versatile, durable, lightweight

and shatter-resistant. To learn more, call the American Plastics Council at

1.800.777.9500 for a free booklet. Plastics. One part of your diet you may never

break. *

Plastic is in and on all of the things

that it comes in contact with.

 

And when you eat the things

that plastic contacts, quite literally,

it becomes you.

In other words, you are what you eat

. . . drink. . . and breathe.

 

 

Brillat-Savarin, JA. Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie

Transcendante...Paris: Sautelet et Cie, 1826. Note: Jean Anthelme

Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) was a French lawyer and politician who achieved fame

through a book, Physiologie du Gout. " You are what you eat comes from the quote

by Brillat-Savarin " Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. "

 

* " Plastics. One part of your diet you may never break. "

. . .you may want to but it is utterly impossible.

 

What's so bad about having plastic in you?

 

Two things make it hazardous. First, plastic is made by combining many toxic

synthetic man-made chemicals by a process called polymerization. The plastics

industry tells us that this process binds the toxic chemicals together so

tightly that they are no longer toxic to us. But they don't tell us that the

polymerization process is never 100% perfect. It always leaves some of those

toxic chemicals floating around. They are able to migrate out of the plastic

product and into whatever contacts them, whether it be your food or you.

 

Secondly, many of these chemicals not only cause cancer, but also mimic the

natural hormones of your body. They have been given the name endocrine

disruptors, or hormone mimics. These toxic man-made chemicals have been shown to

be accumulating in the bodies of both humans and the animals we eat. Hormones

act in single digit part/per/trillion (PPT) concentrations, and have an effect

on virtually every bodily function. The effects of disrupting the normal

activities of hormones can be devastating and are permanent. The industry answer

to this warning by environmentalists is that the plastics industry is heavily

regulated and that even though the chemicals do migrate, it is at extremely low

levels that do not cause harm. There is more detail on this below, but

understand that there are no regulations that protect anyone or thing from the

PPT concentrations that do get into our food, water, air, and bodies.

 

Q: What is common to all of these items?

 

 

Water - Bottles, Pipes, Biking/Hiking Strap-on Backpacks. . .

 

 

Food - Additives, Preservatives, Colorings, Extenders, Texturizers. . .Fish,

Beef, Pork, Poultry

 

 

Clothing - All Synthetic Type, Wrinkle-Resistant Coatings. . .

 

 

Books - Paper Coatings, Inks, Glues, Bindings

 

 

Building Supplies - Roofing, Siding, Windows, Flooring, Wall Coverings, Wires. .

..

 

 

Paints - Most

 

 

Toothpaste

 

 

Dental Products - Sealants and more

 

 

Cosmetics - Hand/Face Creams, Nail Polish, and more. . .

 

 

Sun Screen

 

 

Hair Spray

 

 

Shampoo

 

 

Chewing gum

 

 

Transportation - Bus, Auto, Truck, Train, Plane

 

 

Communication Equipment - Telephone, TV, Radio, Computer, Wires

 

 

Prosthetic devices - Implants, Supports

 

 

Medical devices and supplies - Blood Bags, IV Tubing, Kidney Dialysis Equipment

 

 

Incinerators - Known by industry and solid waste managers as a means of

" Recycling " and " Energy Recovery "

 

 

Humans in all forms—Found in Human Embryo, Infant, Child, and Adult without

exception.

 

 

A: PLASTIC can be found in all of them

 

The most prophetic announcement in the sixties of plastic, even more so than the

film The Graduate, was a song published in 1967 named Plastic People by Frank

Zappa. It explains much of what we have against plastics. This may need

translation for some viewers. If so, please do not hesitate to ask questions.

 

Many of the synthetic manmade chemicals in the plastics pictured above and

others are toxic during their production**, use**, and disposal**.

 

To rely on industry for health studies of chemicals is suicidal. Public

information from EPA is generally not in step with current knowledge. For those

who value their health and that of their children, the EPA cannot be a prime

source because of industry/political pressure. Testing for low-dose toxicity and

long-term health effects on the thousands of existing chemicals is quite rare.

At the same time, new ones are being created at an alarming rate without

adequate testing. The total worldwide output of synthetic chemicals is

staggering. Currently, there are 15,000 chemicals which are produced at 10,000

pounds per year or greater.

 

The American Plastics Council is hard at work 'helping' you to understand how

plastic is safe, reliable, and recycled. Nothing could be further from the

truth.

 

Why synthetic chemicals can be so dangerous

Finding " the cure " has created great wealth in the U.S.

But because it isn't a money-maker, only lip-service is paid to prevention .

 

Probably everyone knows what a carcinogen is because of all the press " the cure "

gets -- a carcinogen creates cancer. As its head cheerleader, the American

Cancer Society spends millions of advertising dollars that come in from donors

including the very corporations** that create the carcinogenic chemicals.

Industry also pressures legislators to reduce restrictions in the name of jobs.

Their huge ACS donations are not only tax deductible, but are used by the

corporations to give themselves a benevolent appearance and to relieve their

conscience. Unfortunately, quite a bit more than cancer is at stake

 

For many years toxicologists have chanted that the greater the quantity of a

toxin, the greater the risk of a negative health effect like cancer. Though

widely dispelled by current science as a myth, " the dose makes the poison, " is

still heard frequently from industry and those dependant upon industry cash.

What is known today is that chemicals can have many different deleterious health

effects at high and/or low doses. Extremely low doses of some chemicals called

endocrine disruptors (EDs) can have permanent severe consequences. The most

vulnerable to this attack on the endocrine system is the embryo and very young.

 

EDs disturb the endocrine system's normal operation in orchestrating many

essential bodily functions. The outcome of such interference in the endocrine

system of an embryo, infant, or child by one or any combination of these

synthetic chemicals is generally permanent and may not be evident until after

puberty. Damage done to a fetus can be passed on to its descendents. It is not

known how many chemicals are endocrine disruptors. Combinations of EDs can have

a synergistic effect, in that the total toxicity is greater than the sum of the

parts.

 

The list of deleterious health effects includes physical deformities, cancer

(brain, breast, cervix, colon, testicles), early puberty, immune deficiencies,

endometriosis, behavioral problems, lowered intelligence, impaired memory,

skewed sexuality (see note below), low sperm count, motor skill deficits,

reduced eye-hand coordination, reduced physical stamina, and much more. These

have all been evidenced in animal studies and many have been noted in human

studies. Since we do live in a sea of man-made toxicity, there is great

difficulty in pinpointing exactly which chemical or combination of chemicals was

the cause of a cancer or deformity.

 

 

Sea of toxicants surrounding us on a day-to-day basis (figuratively and

literally a sea of plastics)

 

 

Synergistic effect of combing more than one makes them even more potent

 

 

Extreme lack of human testing data

 

 

Inadequate testing of new chemicals

 

 

Nonexistent testing of older " grandfathered " existing chemicals

 

 

Connecting cause and effect difficult because many effects are not known until

after puberty

 

This is something that needs discussion -- proven in nature, not proven in

humans, but humans are indeed animals, and we have no reason to believe that we

are an immune species.

Note on Skewed Sexuality

It has been observed in nature that endocrine disruptors have the capability of

skewing the physical and psychological qualities of an animal's sexuality. EDs

can reverse the sexuality of males and females, as seen in fish. See Permanent

and Functional Male-to-Female Sex Reversal

 

Female gulls have been observed nesting together while the male doesn't act the

part of male, and is not excited by females. Normally a male/female couple is

found together. This was put together by Theo Colborn in her book Our Stolen

Future.

 

Dr. Louis J. Guillette Jr. observed alligators in Lake Appopka, FL that have

extremely small penises and complete change-overs to female in some. See

Reduction in Penis Size and Plasma Testosterone Concentrations in Juvenile

Alligators

 

EDs are thought to play a role in speeding up maturation as evidenced in young

girls developing breasts prematurely. See Young Puerto Rican Girls with

Premature Breast Development

 

Professor vom Saal at the University of Missouri, found that female mice will

develop sandwiched between two males. Based on their position relative to their

neighbors in the womb, aggressive females were, as predicted, the ones who had

developed between males. The prenatal hormone environment of mice leaves a

permanent imprint on each female that is also recognized by the noses of males

for the rest of their lives. The attractiveness of females depends on the social

chemicals they give off, which are called pheromones. The pretty sisters smell

" sexier " to males because they produce different chemicals than their less

attractive sisters. For more on this see Hormones: Chemical Messengers That Work

in Parts per Trillion

 

There has been a lot of animal research on this. While there are no substantial

data on this in humans, we believe that good reason exists to warn people of the

great possibility of EDs having the very same effects on humans.

 

 

 

EDs mimic the hormones, which can operate in concentrations of parts per

trillion. One can begin to imagine a quantity so infinitesimally small by

thinking of a drop of gin in a train of tank cars full of tonic. One drop in 660

tank cars would be one part in a trillion; such a train would be six miles

long.**

 

Another example of how potent hormones are is that intrauterine position, or the

position the embryo has in the uterus, significantly effects the reproductive

organs in male mice.**

 

The Food Quality Protection Act and other statutes require EPA to develop and

implement a screening and testing program on chemicals to assess their

endocrine-disrupting properties. However, industry has made sure that EPA is

grossly under-budgeted for implementation activities for its endocrine disruptor

screening program. But EPA has only $3.2 million for all endocrine disruptor

work in Fiscal Year 1999, and the proposed figure for FY 2000 is $7.7 million.

Industry has not expressed a willingness to contribute resources to the EPA.

Some estimates put the cost of screening up to $1 million per chemical. **

 

Recycling

 

What the industry calls recycling is not at all what most people think of when

they hear that term. The hard, cold fact of the matter is that there is no such

thing as recycling of plastic. Recycling means a closed loop. Plastic

'recycling' is not a closed loop. In other words, it is not recycled.

 

According to Webster's:

Recycle: ( " )rE-'sI-k & l to return to an original condition so that operation can

begin again

 

The number one reason is that it has an extremely limited lifespan. None of the

plastic milk bottles or soda bottles that we put in our curbside recycling bins

are made back into new milk bottles or soda bottles. Because plastic degenerates

each time it is heated, all those plastic bottles are generally made into

products such as park benches-- products that don't require standards as high as

those for milk bottles. Virtually all milk bottles are new plastic made mostly

from the same natural gas that you cook your meals with. When the useful life of

those park benches has ended, they are not qualified to be recycled. It's a

quick dead end for plastic.

 

In order to make a valid energy use comparison to glass, the short life of

plastic must be accounted for. The energy used to recycle glass is considerably

less than what is used to make new plastic, making glass the winner by far.

Glass bottles used for milk are typically washed an average of seven times

before being recycled into new bottles. In California alone, about 55 million

single-use milk containers are put into landfills each month. (Straus Family

Creamery, Marshall CA)

 

 

 

For a detailed paper on plastics recycling, see the Berkeley Plastics Task Force

Report\

 

What's really made from used plastic bottles?

Products made from recovered plastic bottles include drainage pipes, toys,

carpet, filler for pillows and sleeping bags, and cassette casings. But not

more bottles.

 

10% of the average grocery bill pays for packaging (mostly paper and plastics) -

that's more than goes to the farmers. Every year, we make enough plastic film to

shrink-wrap the state of Texas. The average 1992 American car contains 300

pounds of plastic made from about 60 different resins. (EPA Plastic Facts

http://www.epa.gov/seahome/housewaste/src/plastic.htm )

 

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/6th-Basic-Food-Group.htm

 

 

 

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Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

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