Dioxin in Bottled Water?

Someone sent me an e-mail that Sheryl Crow, the singer, got breast cancer from drinking bottled water that had been left in a car. The heat inside the car, the e-mail said, caused dioxin to leach out of the plastic bottle into the water she drank. Dioxin is one of the most toxic substances known to man. Dioxin is released when plastics are made and also when they are disposed of. I don’t know if the story about Sheryl Crow is true. It is an e-rumor in reaction to the great toxicity of our environment.

In early 2002, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Manager of the Wellness and Lifestyle Medicine Department at Castle Medical Center in Hawaii, gave a TV interview on this subject. In his interview, Dr. Fujimoto warned us not to use plastic containers to heat our food in microwave ovens. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastic releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.

He recommended using glass, such as Corning Ware or Pyrex, or ceramic containers for heating food. Such things as TV dinners, instant ramen, and soups should be removed from the container and heated in something else, even if its plastic packaging was designed for the microwave. Paper is not bad, but it is safest to use heat-resistant glass or a ceramic container.

Dr. Fujimoto reminded us that in recent years some of the fast food restaurants moved away from styrofoam containers to paper. The dioxin problem was one of the reasons.

Also, he said that plastic wrap, such as Saran Wrap, is extremely dangerous when placed over foods in a microwave oven. He suggested covering the food with a paper towel instead.

Despite the importance of this subject, nobody seems to know much about it. Plastics only came into wide usage about 30 or 40 years ago. Dioxin is formed when plastics are heated.

How hot do plastics have to be before dioxin and several other known disease-causing agents begin to leach out of them into your food? Nobody knows. The safest assumption is that even moderate heat will cause this leaching, and that we must therefore replace plastic with metal, glass, or ceramic containers to cook and store our food and water.

How does dioxin get inside our bodies ordinarily, even if we don’t use a microwave oven or drink bottled water? We eat it. Dioxin rises in the food chain and is therefore found in almost all meats, fish, and dairy products. This is considered to be one of the best reasons to switch to a vegan diet.

Dr. Fujimoto in an interview in 2006 with TruthOrFiction.com said that in Japan the majority of the population knows about dioxins, and the country has enacted regulations to protect its people.

I don’t hear this issue being discussed in the United States. On the contrary, when I go to the supermarket, I see a wide variety of microwaveable foods for sale, all packaged in plastic containers. These plastic containers are usually labeled as safe for use in a microwave oven, but we obviously should be skeptical of that claim.  I also see row upon row of bottled water available in plastic bottles. We have all been advised not to re-use old water bottles, and I suppose that’s a good idea. Using a canteen, thermos, or a stainless steel bottle would probably be even safer.

Most of us are in a hurry. We have jobs; we have projects; we have duties and responsibilities; we have important things to do. We have no time to chew our food, never mind cook our food. Is it not so?  We would have to change our minds about a lot of things — we would really have to change our value system — in order to remain healthy. Nobody seems to care whether or not we are healthy. My boss just wants the work done. My teacher just wants the paper done. I have a lot of things to do today. Nobody cares about my food and my health, only me. Do I even care? What do you think it takes to change a person’s mind about making his own health a high priority? Is your mind already changed? This is an issue that concerns us all, and I’m sure we’ll all be keeping our eyes on it.

Photo credit: The graphic image at the top of this post is from a billboard advertisement for Vans sneakers.

Questions for Discussion

1. Have you ever taken a shower curtain out of its wrapper and wondered what that horrible smell was? Have you ever drunk water out of a plastic bottle that has been sitting around for awhile and wondered what that horrible taste was?
2. Everybody who lives in an industrialized country already has high levels of dioxin in his or her body. How could we not? Plastic production is booming and raw plastic is sold to companies that heat and mold it into everything from refrigerators to radios, from wallpaper to the insulation around wires, from your cell phone to your plumbing pipes. Look around your room. Make a list of everything you see that is made of plastic.
3. Some people think that microwave ovens are a miracle, because they can cook your dinner in a few minutes instead of a few hours. Do you cook food in a microwave oven? What are the conveniences of cooking in a microwave oven?
4. Did you know that you cannot make plastics without producing dioxins? A few other industrial processes also result in the production of dioxins. These toxins build up in the body slowly, accumulating in fatty tissue, causing infertility, endometriosis, miscarriages, birth defects, low sperm counts, low testosterone levels, diabetes, nervous system disorders, and, of course, ___________ . [Please fill in the blank.]
5. Did you know that while finished plastic is said to be non-toxic and very stable, one of its ingredients, vinyl chloride,  is classified as a known human carcinogen? This was already known in the 1960s, but that did not prevent vinyl chloride from being used as a propellant in aerosols, like cans of hair spray, until 1974.  Women used to spray this stuff on their heads to keep their hair in place! My question is: Do you think this is a true story or that I am making it up?
6. Are you aware of other environmental hazards? What do you think is the best way we can protect ourselves from environmental hazards going forward into the future?
7. People say we need to avoid all  ingredients and household products having “chloro” as part of their names. What do you think about this?
8. Because dioxin accumulates in fat cells and because women’s bodies have more fat cells, people might be thinking that this is only a woman’s issue. That is not true. According to the Environmental Protection Agency [an agency of the government], much of the population of the U.S. is already at the dose at which there can be serious health effects, according to Jonathan Campbell, a health consultant. You don’t have to be a woman to put a TV dinner packaged in plastic into the microwave and then eat it. Do you think you will ever do that again? Or do you think you will make every effort to buy glass or ceramic containers for food you put into the microwave?
9. While we would never put nylon, spandex, or polyester into an oven, of course, many people cook with Tupperware, a harder plastic which is considered to be oven-safe, and Teflon, a plastic coating that protects frying pans. Bakelite was an early form of plastic, and it is hard and fire resistant. However, a main ingredient of Bakelite is formaldehyde, and when Bakelite burns, that makes a very stinky fire indeed. We would not put a Coco-Cola bottle or most food trays, made of PET plastic, into an oven. There are about 22 different types of plastics in use currently. Who decides which are safe for cooking and storing our drinking water? How many long-term safety studies have been done?
10. The major source of dioxin is our food. It works its way up to the top of the food chain as we eat meat, fish, and dairy products. Those who have studied this subject recommend a vegan diet. Only vegetarian meat substitutes like tofu, beans, and rice have essentially no contamination. Do you know what a vegan diet is? It’s rather strict. Do you think that you and that the people you know would be willing to give up tasty or traditional  foods you are now eating, like meats and cheeses, for example, solely to prevent a miscarriage ten years from now or a cancer 20 years from now? That might require a different kind of thinking, wouldn’t it? What is the difference between taking the short view (being short-sighted) and taking the long view?
11. Or does it go against human nature to change our food habits and values?

Copyright © 2009 Barbara A. English. All rights reserved.