Toxic Chemicals in Plastic Bottles

I have mentioned previously about toxic chemicals that may potentially leached out from baby milk bottles, actually such toxic chemicals can be leached out from other plastic containers that we use everyday.



There are literally plastics everywhere in our city life, and many city dwellers probably can't live without plastics (imagine Great Singapore Sales without the plastic shopping carriers!) We are exposed to vast amount of toxins everyday and they may potentially harm our health, as these toxins can leached out into the food/drink. How many times you heard your friend saying that 'I don't like this, it taste like the plastic bottle ...', while in fact, they are really "drinking" the plastic.



What should we do? It is quite impossible to avoid using plastic all together, but since some plastics are better than other, the very least that we can do is try to lower our exposure to the "bad" ones.



Many plastic containers have triangle symbol on the bottom with a number inside. They are not just meant for recycling only. The number actually tells you the kind fo plastic the container is made of: (http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/guide_ref/guide_plascod3.html)

Among the 7 categories, No. 3, 6 and 7 is the worst. In my baby milk bottles entry, BPA (an environmental hormone) can be leached out from bottles made of polycarbonate (PC) plastic, which is under No.7 ("Other" category) in the coding system. PC is widely used in colourful clear plastic bottles and many renouned brands like Sigg and Nalgene used to use it in their products.

So, as much as possible, try to:

1. Do not re-use plastic water bottles
2. Do not use plastics containers (such as styrofoam box, chicken rice paper wrap, plastic bags) to keep hot food.
3. Transfer food content from canned food once it is opened (as the interior of tin cans are lined with plastic).
4. Use glass or metal containers as much as possible.