Posts Tagged ‘polycarbonates’
Poisons in Our Food?
Society has a love-hate relationship with plastic. We sure use a lot of it, but even before an actor whispered “Plastics…” as a word of advice in the movie The Graduate, plastic often meant shoddy, imitation, and uncool.
Ardent environmentalists tend to hate plastic. You know the issues there.
Now there are other concerns about plastics — namely, that they are poisoning our food supply. These concerns stem from the fact that unsavory chemicals in some plastics can leach into food. Canada highlighted the issue by proposing a ban of plastics containing bisphenol-A, a compound with significant toxicity.
Recently, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed even more startling findings about bisphenol-A.1 In a large population study of individuals between the ages of 18 and 74, it was found that people with higher levels of bisphenol-A in their urine also had higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
This is especially worrisome because bisphenol-A is found in a plastic called polycarbonate used to make baby bottles. While the study authors were clear that this does not necessarily show a cause and effect relationship, it is well worth noting the risk.
The question of safety regarding polycarbonates raises a larger question — just how safe are all the plastics that we come into regular contact with? Or phrased differently, what are the risks of packaging and serving food and beverages in plastic?
