Most Plastics Are Harmful To Use For Food/Water!

[Peter Lemkin]

I'd only add that I've know this from my graduate coursework in Environmental Health of well over 30 years ago - things have slowly gotten worse with more plastic surrounding and holding our foods and more plastic types. Microwaving [where one must use plastics or glass/ceramics] with plastic is just a no-no! Ditto, plastic foil to seal foods. Heating, exposure to UV or other radiation released monomers [bad] from the polymer plastics. Some of the polymers are, themselves, harmful...but most of the monomers are. Acidic foods [such as colas] are absolutely a grave danger for this reason - as well as others. Even tea or coffee made in plastic is. Many foods are acidic and when placed in plastic containers, even in a cold refrigerator, is looking for incremental danger [the effects are additive over one's life]. Sadly, I love to hike in the mountains and plastic weighs much less than does metal for containers. Dry foods would best be stored in metal foils or glass and ceramic containers. Plastic lids - if they do not touch the food - and if no condensation is going to form on them and then drip down would not be dangerous - but the condensation and dripping is all but inevitable. There are some listings of the few plastics that seem to be safe[R] - but hard to find and NOT publicly available - thanks to the power of the chemical industry. Even with these, it is the care taken in forming the plastics [the mixing of the monomers] that will largely determine their safety or lack thereof - and care costs - and cutting costs is part of capitalism as practiced today. Plastics are dangerous NOT just near foods [and they are even put IN foods], they are everywhere and can cause harm when volatilized in a car, ventilation system, even in health care and hospital products. We live surrounded by plastic. About the worst is burning plastic in a fire - something campers often due. This can produce highly carcinogenic products you will breathe in - or release into the general air...don't do it. Minimize plastic use, wherever possible; plastic contact with things that you touch and find out which few plastics are not harmful as others. I'll try to find the list of the commonly available one's now....but products rarely list the type of plastic and a lot of investigation must be done by the buyer to find out what type was used and even more difficult to learn if the mixing was done for that product properly. Glass and ceramics - if not containing lead - are much healthier. Metal containers, with the exception of aluminum in some cases - are safe. Its a dangerous world and as long as it makes some money, they don't care about the health effects. ::