Purging Plastics

Poisonous plastics have seized our world and invaded our bodies.

Giggle: That Guy is cleaning his house of plastics.

Just when Dearie is ready to cook lunch, TG wreaks the kitchen. Always over the top, rather than starting small, he tosses it all. Now she is left to clean up his mess and take out this trash.

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Gab: Our Plastic World

Its’s worse than you think. Plastics, micro plastics, and nano plastics are everywhere!

You breath them. You eat them. You wear them.

National biomonitoring surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find some plastic chemicals, including BPA and phthalates, are inside almost everyone in the U.S. They are found in all human tissue, from the brain to testicles, blood, and bodily fluids including semen, salvia, breast milk. And a University of Mexico study found that the brain has 20 times more plastics than other organs.

Plastics are toxic. Micro plastics are worse. And nano plastics are the worst.

Plastic products break down into microplastics. These particles can be as small as one nanometer or as large as five millimeters. contain up to 20,000 plastic chemicals (many you never heard of) and cause many health issues. And even worse are small, invisible nano plastics, found in geo engineered clouds, crops, drinking water, and food. And in all packaged foods, especially fast foods, come another layer of toxicity: phthalates, which are plasticizers. These are chemical substances added to plastic and other materials to make them more flexible, so they mold to desired shape, such as the boxes and wrappings fast foods are served in. Heating food in plastic containers increases phthalate leaching. Even wrapping hot foods in these materials, such as a fast food burger in its packaging, brings increased risk of phthalate leaching. And the more processed the food, such as protein powders, the more plasticizers it likely has. From food production to food packaging, your food is wrecked by plastics before you ever put it in a plastic bag at the grocery store to when its packaging is disposed of.

Drinking water is a big source of plastics, both tap and bottled. A 1-liter plastic bottle of water can contain thousands of nano plastic fragments, small enough to enter the bloodstream and cross protective barriers in the body. And surprisingly, a new French study this month, found glass to be even worse than plastic! Guillaume Duflos, research director at French food safety agency ANSES, led a study to investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact of different types of containers. Flat and sparkling water tested at 4.5 particles per liter for glass and 1.6 in plastic. Similarly soft drinks, lemonade, iced tea, and beer in glass bottles had much higher rates of microplastics than the rate detected in plastic bottles and metal cans. How can this be? The particles emerging from the glass samples were the same shape, color, and polymer composition (the same plastic) as the paint on the outside of the caps that seal the glass bottles. Tiny scratches, on the plastic paint on the caps (likely due to friction between the caps when stored before bottling) found their way onto the inside surface of these caps, contaminating the water inside the glass bottles. Wine contained the least microplastics, finding only a few, even in glass bottles with metal caps.

The air in our homes and house dust are filled with plastic particles. And so are our bodies! Smaller size nano plastics are more amenable than microplastics, making it easier for them to enter the human body. According to Consumer Reports, the dangers to human health include increased inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and necrosis. And it leads to infertility, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, thyroid problems, heart attack, and stroke. The particles have been found throughout the human body, crossing brain and placental barriers. And some microplastic chemicals, such as PFAS, are among the most toxic synthetic substances, linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption, and developmental problems in fetuses and young children.

The future is full of plastics. By 2060 the amount of plastic produced is expected to triple! A large proportion of this increase will be single-use and short-lived plastic products, which today make up 35 and 40 percent of plastic production. And as plastic production increases our health and the health of generations to come will decrease.

Goods: Control What You Can

Our bodies have become dumping grounds for plastics. And plastics do not disintegrate in landfills nor in our bodies. So, we must purge all we can and stop buying this stuff!

I began my plastics purge one year ago and stopped buying plastics whenever possible.

Food
When buying groceries, I do not put fresh food, such as bananas, in those pesky plastic bags at end of counter that never want to open. I also consider packaging on everything I purchase and buy one brand over another based on its container, such as coffee in a metal can verses a plastic bag, and tea in cotton tea bags verses plastic tea bags. I never buy any food that must be microwaved in its plastic container. And I request paper bags at checkout.

At farmers markets, I take my own organic, cotton bags for my organic food and never allow the farmers to put my organic purchases in plastic. Ironically, most of their produce on display is either already packed in plastic containers (you know those square and rectangle ones that are hell to open and don’t fit round or oblong fruit and eggs) or they have “recycled” plastic bags at the ready for me. The few farmers who have their produce in nice, green, cardboard containers will jump over the table should you start to take the produce in the container. Instead, they want to put their organic produce in their previously used plastic bag to take home! They have boxes of them… Most farmers need to rethink their packaging.

Kitchen
Phthalates, microplastics, and nano plastics leach at significantly higher rates under high heat. So, I never put hot food or liquid in plastic or cook food in plastic. I even tossed the microwave! Now popcorn is cooked in a copper skillet over a gas eye on the stove.

I replaced plastic bags with unbleached parchment paper bags and tossed the Tupperware for stainless steel storage. Never had a plastic cutting board, but if you do toss it and get a wooden one. Plastic cutting boards are one of the worst culprits. You are slicing and dicing micro and nano plastics into your food. I also replaced all cookware with any type of coating. I trust none of it. While at it toss your plastic cooking utensils replacing with wood or stainless.

Just when I started buying food in glass and saving the glass bottles and their lids for storage, comes the news (above in “Gab”) that glass is worse than plastic due to the plastic paint on the lids! So, I have gone back a few generations, real old school. I started using those blue Ball Jars with zinc lids that I found in my grandmother’s barn, rather than just displaying them. And I am buying more on Ebay! Also from my grandmother’s barn, I use her crockery made during The Great Depression for storage.

Water
Water is perhaps the most important change. I no longer buy water in any type of container other than a can. If you missed last month’s Funnies & Foodies: Forbidding Fluoride, I shared my newest purchase of SANS water system and am purchasing their air filter for my home now. I am delighted with my SANS. I now have clean drinking water for our dogs and ourselves. I use it for cooking and for rinsing food. If you make only one change to reduce plastics, this should be it. It reduces 99.9% of microplastics among other impurities.

Textiles
Clothes is also a culprit. Most clothes are made from synthetic textiles, AKA plastics. Spandex, polyester, and nylon are all made from plastics. I have been buying organic cotton clothes whenever possible for many years. Eileen Fisher, among other designers, has an organic line that can be washed not dry cleaned, which is very unhealthy. We have an organic mattress set, pillows, mattress cover, and sheets by Omni. We also buy organic blankets and towels.

Washing
When you wash synthetic clothing and textiles, microplastics shed from the clothes into the laundry water, and onto the clothes’ surface. Studies have shown 40X the allowable limit of BPA gets released into the environment during a standard wash. Plastic Purge is a new laundry detergent that was created to help remove these harmful toxins from your wash. In the detergent, activated carbon binds, zeolite traps, and laccase enzyme to neutralizes suspected toxins. I discovered it while writing this and just ordered my first shipment.

Toys
Ditch children and pets toys made of plastic. Many dog toys have the same plastic inside as water bottles for added noise. Sadly, is difficult to find safe toys for children and pets. I start with brands made in the USA and go from there, looking carefully at the products they are made of.

Detox
A healthy, balanced diet of organic fruits, vegetables, and fiber supports overall detoxification. Foods with sulforaphane, such as broccoli and sprouts, can enhance the body's ability to process and eliminate toxins. Some antioxidants and compounds support the body's natural detoxification processes. These include glutathione, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), and Vitamin C, along with soluble fiber and algae supplements like chlorella and spirulina. Yet there is nothing that can eliminate all plastics from our bodies. Thus, we must stop adding more!

We are all in this together. Please share ideas and info on how we can survive in a plastic world without becoming plastic people. - Jan Walsh