Plastic Containers: Avoid 3, 6, 7

bad_plastics Last weekend there was a symposium at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York exploring whether certain common chemicals are linked to breast cancer and other ailments. Dr. Philip Landrigan, the chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai, said that the risk that a 50-year-old white woman will develop breast cancer has soared to 12 percent today, from 1 percent in 1975. Younger people are developing breast cancer: This year a 10-year-old in California is fighting breast cancer. Asthma is also on the rise. According to a report in June, 2009 The Business Insider, the Bronx is the asthma capital of the country. Asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years, Dr. Landrigan said. Childhood leukemia is increasing. Obesity has surged. One factor may be environmental and household chemicals. It is a known fact that most women living in Asia have low rates of breast cancer, but ethnic Asian women born and raised in the United States don’t enjoy that benefit. At the symposium, Dr. Alisan Goldfarb, a surgeon specializing in breast cancer, pointed to a chart showing breast cancer rates by ethnicity. “If an Asian woman moves to New York, her daughters will be in this column,” she said, pointing to “whites.” “It is something to do with the environment.” ((It may also be diet!))

Nicholas Kristof, Op-Ed columnist for the NY Times, attended the symposium. He asked doctors attending what they do at home to protect against environmental poisons. Their response: They don’t heat plastic containers or use them in a microwave. Plastic containers marked 1, 2, 4, and 5 are thought to be safe; those marked 3, 6 and 7 are not. The number is printed in a triangle found on the bottom of plastic containers. See Kristof’s entire article and here is a link to his blog which links to an important 50 page (PDF) report by the Endocrine Society about dangerous endocrine-disrupting chemicals that lead to cancers.

Here is a scary thought: Even if you are careful your neighbors may not be. If your neighborhood does not recycle bottles, plastic containers and styrofoam, they may be burned with the regular garbage and emit fumes that can poison the air for many miles. Most people are ignorant of the dangers.