Re: Plastic Mold Of China

interesting, chief. the chemistry involved (and chemical breakdowns) is way
beyond my expertise.

i do, however, have concern and some skepticism of the ability of our FDA to
effectively accomplish their designated task in overseeing and insuring the
safety of the products that make it to our marketplace.

the FDA's severely limited resources of funding and manpower, exacerbated by
budgetary cutbacks over the past several administrations, has created a
situation in which harmful products have indeed slipped through the cracks
in their oversight and entered our marketplace to the general populace, even
recently. meaning--a lot of the FDA's work recently has been of poor
quality or has been absent about a lot of products. some of what should
have been the research work done by the FDA, on our behalf, has been left to
the product manufacturers themselves to do and submitted to the FDA; and
then, these same product manufacturers' research reports have been simply
rubber stamped by the FDA. that does not leave me with warm fuzzies about,
nor does it give me confidence in the FDA's approval of the safety of some
products.

kate


"Califchief" <califchief@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1208079623.11.1208016029@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

no, chief. this news didn't come in my email. it was on several tv
channels.

I understood that. Here are 3 rebuttals to that urban legend that's
popped up again.
_____________________________________________________________________

#1.......................

Origins: This "health alert" began appearing in people's inboxes in
February 2002; the "Channel 2" reference indicates it was someone's
summarization of a short morning news health segment aired on KHON-TV in
Hawaii on 23 January 2002, which was then forwarded all over the Internet as
"important health information." One- or two-minute health spots on local
news programs are not ideal sources of medical information, however. While
important basic information can be imparted in such a format, trying to
explicate complex medical topics in a minute or two can easily mislead or
confuse viewers, many of whom come away believing absolutely whatever
they've heard (or think they've heard) because "a doctor on TV said it was
true" - in this case an unshakeable belief that using plastic containers in
microwave ovens causes cancer.

That a doctor (or, more accurately, someone bearing the title "Dr.")
appears on TV does not mean he's a leading practitioner in his field; it
generally means only that he has something to say that a news director
considers newsworthy, accurate or not. (The "Dr. Edward Fujimoto" identified
in this piece is not a staff physician from "Castle Hospital" or a medical
doctor; he's a Ph.D. serving as director of the Center for Health Promotion
at Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii.) What TV news covers is
ditated by ratings, not importance, and sensational claims get better
ratings than straightforward, mundane information, even if the latter is
more valuable to the viewing audience. It's a pretty good assumption that if
using plastic containers in microwaves - as millions of people have been
doing for decades - posed a significant risk of cancer, you'd be hearing
about it somewhere other than an e-mail forward of an anonymous summary of a
morning news spot on a Hawaiian television station.





and they were speaking of the polycarbonates,

#2.................


[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 21, Volume 3]
[Revised as of April 1, 2007]
[CITE: 21CFR177.1580]


TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS

CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBCHAPTER B--FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED)

PART 177 -- INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: POLYMERS <CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=177>

Subpart B--Substances for Use as Basic Components of Single and Repeated
Use Food Contact Surfaces
Sec. 177.1580 Polycarbonate resins.

Polycarbonate resins may be safely used as articles or components of
articles intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing,
processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting, or holding
food, in accordance with the following prescribed conditions:

(a) Polycarbonate resins are polyesters produced by:

(1) The condensation of 4,4'-iso-propylidenediphenol and carbonyl
chloride to which may have been added certain optional adjuvant
substances required in the production of the resins; or by

(2) The reaction of molten 4,4'-iso-propylidenediphenol with molten
diphenyl carbonate in the presence of the disodium salt of
4,4'-isopropylidenediphenol.

(3) The condensation of 4,4'-isopro- pylidenediphenol, carbonyl
chloride, and 0.5 percent weight maximum of /a/ 2, /a/ 6-bis (6-hydroxy
/-m-/ tolyl) mesitol to which may have been added certain optional
adjuvant substances required in the production of branched polycarbonate
resins.

(b) The optional adjuvant substances required in the production of
resins produced by the methods described in paragraph (a)(1) and (3) of
this section may include substances generally recognized as safe in
food, substances used in accordance with a prior sanction or approval,
and the following:
__________________________________________________________________

.........and #3


June 24, 2004
Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water Bottles

Rolf Halden, PhD, PE

The Internet has been flooded with false email warnings.
One hoax email has been erroneously attributed to Johns Hopkins University
since the spring of 2004. The Office of Communications and Public Affairs
discussed the issue with Rolf Halden, PhD, PE, assistant professor in the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center for Water and
Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr.
Halden received his masters and doctoral degrees researching dioxin
contamination in the environment. We sat down with him to set the record
straight on dioxins in the food supply and the risks associated with
drinking water from plastic bottles and cooking with plastics.



Question: What are dioxins?

Answer: Dioxins are organic environmental pollutants sometimes referred to
as the most toxic compounds made by mankind. They are a group of chemicals,
which include 75 different chlorinated molecules of dibenzo-p-dioxin and 135
chlorinated dibenzofurans.
Some polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) also are referred to as dioxin-like
compounds. Exposure to dioxins can cause chloracne, a severe form of skin
disease, as well as reproductive and developmental effects, and more
importantly, liver damage and cancer.



Question: Where do dioxins come from?

Answer: We always thought dioxins were man-made compounds produced
inadvertently during the bleaching of pulp and manufacturing of pesticides
like Agent Orange and other chlorinated aromatics. But dioxins in sediments
from lakes and oceans predate these human activities. It is now generally
accepted that a principal source of dioxins are various combustion
processes, including natural events such as wild fires and even volcanic
eruptions.



Question: What do you make of this recent email warning

Answer: No. This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics.



Question: So it's okay for people to drink out of plastic water bottles?

Answer: First, people should be more concerned about the quality of the
water they are drinking rather than the container it's coming from. Many
people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water, so they buy bottled water
instead. The truth is that city water is much more highly regulated and
monitored for quality. Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many
things we would not tolerate in municipal drinking water.



Question: Water bottles aside, are plastics products for daily use a
potential concern? What are phthalates?

Answer: Having said this, there is another group of chemicals, called
phthalates. Phthalates are sometimes added to plastics to make them flexible
and less brittle, although they are not typically found in plastics used for
water bottles sold in the United States. Phthalates are environmental
contaminants that can exhibit hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine
disruptors in humans and animals. If you heat up plastics, you could
increase the leaching of phthalates from the containers into water and
food.



Question: What about cooking with plastics?

Answer: In general, whenever you heat something you increase the likelihood
of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released from plastic packaging
materials like the kinds used in some microwave meals. Some drinking straws
say on the label "not for hot beverages." Most people think the warning is
because someone might be burned. If you put that straw into a boiling cup of
hot coffee, you basically have a hot water extraction going on, where the
chemicals in the straw are being extracted into your nice
cup of coffee. We use the same process in the lab to extract chemicals from
materials we want to analyze.

If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic utensils, the best thing
to do is to follow the directions and only use plastics that are
specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are best, for example
heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old stainless steel.


Question: Is there anything else you want to add?

Answer: Don't be afraid of drinking water. It is very important to drink
adequate amounts of water and, by the way that's in addition to all the
coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume. Unless you are drinking
really bad water, you are more likely to suffer from the adverse effects of
dehydration than from the minuscule amounts of chemical contaminants present
in your water supply. Relatively speaking, the risk from exposure to
microbial contaminants is much greater than that from chemicals.

And here's one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us already carries a certain
body burden of dioxins regardless of how and what we eat. If you look hard
enough, you'll find traces of dioxins in pretty much every place on earth.
Paracelsus the famous medieval alchemist, used to put it straight and
simple: it's the dose that makes the poison.--Tim Parsons



Read the response from Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer
Center regarding similar cancer-related hoax emails

Public Affairs media contact for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health: Tim Parsons at 410-955-6878 or paffairs@xxxxxxxxxx



.... Murphy's Law is always a good excuse.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12


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