Beware of Your Household Plastic (Toxin Alert)!!

Do you have plastic Tupperware in your kitchen? How about food or drinks stored in plastic in your fridge/freezer? Is everything in your bathroom drawer contained in some sort of a plastic apparatus? I bet most of you can relate to these questions with an emphatic “YES!”

Have you ever looked into the type of plastic that container is made out of? If you’re thinking, “how would I ever do that?” Look on the bottom of the container. Have you ever seen one of these symbols?

Every plastic container should have one of these symbols at the bottom of them to indicate the chemical composition of the plastic. If you cannot find it, use a flashlight, or something to contrast the container. I promise it is their, the companies that make these products have cleverly figured out how to hide this symbol so it is almost inconspicuous to the naked eye (I wonder why they would do that?).

And if you’re wondering if these are different from each other, of course they are!! High heat, low heat, styrofoam, styrenes, you name it, plastics have it. There is no shortage of plastic compounds that are used to create different storage containers for you to use. But is it worth it to have the convenience at the expense of your health?

The larger issue is that not only are these different compounds, but they interact with what touches them differently. So food that you store in container 1 will interact on a chemical level differently than food stored in a container made out of number 5, for example.

So let’s dive into some of these:

Plastic #1 is a polyester material. It is labeled as safe, and used in so many bottles for drinks, food trays, and even some clothing. But beware! This plastic breaks down easy, meaning it is easy to trap bacteria and debris in these pores, which will then get passed on to the drink or food inside (nasty right?). The other issue is that this plastic contains the heavy metal Antimony, which will leach out of the plastic when it is heated only a few degrees. So you cannot leave food/drink inside this plastic container and leave it in the sun or in your car, definitely do not microwave this plastic!

Plastic #2 is used in freezer and plastic bags. It is deemed safe at this point, and does not transfer any chemicals or metals into what it is in contact with.

Plastic #3 is a vinyl based chloride. It is thick and strong, and therefore can be sliced thin and still have immense strength. You find this plastic with things like cling wrap, but also oil bottles, blinds, piping, and children’s toys. The problem with this type of plastic oil that is known to leach various toxic chemicals such as pthalates, dioxins, and BPA.

These toxins are known to cause cancer, hormone imbalances, reproductive orders, and other developmental disorders. You definitely want to stay away! Better alternatives include glass bottles, wooden organic children’s toys, and switch out that plastic wrap for glass containers.

Plastic #4 is similar to #2, it is a polyethylene commonly used in squeezable continuers. Their is no known health risk to this type of plastic.

Plastic #5 is polypropylene, a thicker plastic commonly found in ketchup and syrup bottles, plastic food storage containers, storage bins, and diapers. This plastic, is again considered safe.

Plastic #6 is essentially styrofoam. Since COVID-19 caused the to-go food and drink industry to boom, we as a culture use more styrofoam than ever! This is not a safe plastic. It contains a neurotoxin, styrene that leaches out of the styrofoam when it becomes hot, fatty, or acidic. High levels of styrene exposure have been linked to reproductive failure and lymphomas. On top of that, there can be leaching of a compound called benzene, which is a carcinogen in its own right.

Do you all know the emulsified oil trick? Pour the oil on the styrofoam and wait a few minutes. If the styrofoam disintegrates, the oil is rancid, and emulsified. That is bad oil to put in your body. It will cause massive amounts of inflammation, even if its marketed as Omega-3 quality.

Plastic #7 includes any plastic that is not made of the commands of plastics #1-6. One of these plastics is commonly used in reusable water bottles and water jugs. This is polycarbonate, which used to contain high amounts of bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, that mimics the hormone estrogen and causes so many health problems. The good news is that BPA received some well deserved bad publicity for its health problems, and even in plastics #7 and most other plastics that used to contain BPA, it has been removed. You should have seen it by now, most plastics advertise that they are BPA free. Be wary however, some recent studies show that other plastics that are type #7 might contain other chemicals that mimic estrogen more strongly than BPA does, which is a huge problem.

Ok, so now it’s obvious that plastics are a problem. To compound that, they are everywhere! Think of a lot of the piping in your house, or the polyester containing clothing that is advertised as cool to wear. So the best way to solve a problem, is to have a solution; use natural fiber cloths like bamboo and organic cotton. As mentioned previously, use glass in your kitchen as much as possible, and have extra glass Tupperware laying around to transport things into on a moments notice.

These types of solutions help to assist the opposite end of the problem, which is plastic waste that does not degrade easily. Plastics take a minimum of usually 500 years to break down, which is 500 years of heating up in the environment and leaching chemicals into our world.

To understand this information better, you can look at the infographic found in the old farmers almanac, see the link here: https://www.almanac.com/which-plastics-are-recyclable-number