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

[Guest guest]

Plastics: The Sixth Basic Food Group--

An Important Part of Your Healthy Diet

 

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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