Our Plastic World: Taking a Personal Inventory

Plastic is everywhere and used for nearly everything: bottles, can linings, computers, televisions, appliances, auto parts, food containers, dental fillings, rain coats, shoes, jewelry...and that's just a tiny sample. It's never-ending.  Plastic is lightweight and the materials used to make it are cheap making it very popular in our modern culture. The materials used include chemical compounds with names such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and/or bisphenol A (BPA). Problem is plastic of any kind is toxic.



Toxic cash register receipts??? Really?

BPA, or Bisphenol A, is a hazardous material used for making all kinds of food containers. It then leaches out of the container and into your body via air, ingestion, and skin absorption. Heat and grease compound the toxicity and magnify the exposure. Through various scientific studies, it has been linked to cancer, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, reproductive abnormalities, neurological problems, and obesity. In addition, it is a well-known endocrine disruptor and is detrimental to thyroid function. Unfortunately, most plastic baby products are made with BPA and pregnant women are advised to avoid contact with BPA. In addition to most plastic items, BPA is also found on cash register receipts! With all these studies confirming the same scary information, why is it still being used?

I've heard the recycling numbers on the bottoms of plastic containers will indicate safety usage levels. Avoid buying anything plastic with the recycle numbers #3 (polyvinyl chloride), #6 (polystyrene) or #7 (bisphenol A, or BPA). Initially this led me to believe all other numbers are safe, but I doubt it. One rule of thumb is soft plastics are supposed to be the worst with the harder, more durable types less problematic. Still, a chemical is a chemical no matter what kind of pretty words are used to describe it, or in this case, whatever the number. In the last ten years, many products have switched their packaging from glass to plastic again for convenience and cost, and I've stopped using those products. When given a choice, I try to opt for glass, metal or wood.

For years I've been trying to rid myself of plastic since testing positive for phenol sensitivities nearly ten years ago. Regardless of the testing results, I can't stand the smell of plastic nor the taste of anything stored in air-tight plastic. Early on I threw away all my old Tupperware and stopped buying Ziploc baggies.  I remember hearing about the new continent being formed out of plastics located somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and this motivated me to start using cloth shopping bags. I started collecting metal buckets for gardening and using glass jars for much of my food storage or any storage. I exchanged my lead-laced plastic window blinds and replaced them with washable, cloth curtains. I bought porcelain light fixtures for my closet lighting instead of the plastic variety. All my dishes, glasses, cups and bowls and other tableware/serving items are ceramic or glass. I threw away my blender with the plastic pitcher and opted for a glass pitcher type, but the casing is still plastic. Unfortunately, the plastic one worked better. These are the sacrifices that are made with a plastic culling.

This got me thinking...even with all the changes I've made, how much plastic do I still have in my life? So I wandered the house taking inventory:

I have three large and five small plastic storage totes although with this last garage sale, I sold a few. I can't stand how they make things stored in them stink, but they are convenient for grouping all my camping equipment in one place. I just have to offgas anything I want to use out in the fresh, open air before I use it. Had I not been rushed into this last garage sale, I might have sold them all and I regret not doing just that.

 

On occasion, I do accept a plastic bag from a store and then use them for waterproofing or anything I need to seal airtight-ish. I store my lettuce in a large glass bowl, but without a plastic cover it gets wilted in a very short amount of time. I try to avoid the plastic grocery bags as much as possible, but their convenience sometimes gets the best of me.

How did we ever not use plastic for food storage? I vaguely remember from my childhood leftovers stored in glass bowls with tin foil over it, but according to my cousin, tin foil is just as toxic. Most of the time I use a plate on top of a bowl, but sometimes cave to the convenience of a recycled Ziploc bag or plastic container. Recycling and reusing a plastic container makes me feel better about it, but I wonder if old, constantly-reused plastic gets more toxic with wear?

Keeps bugs out of things.

I also have collected recycled five and four gallon buckets and use them for outside storage and camping.

At one point I attempted to use paper bags for garbage or just tossing the garbage bits into the large PLASTIC garbage can, but I have to admit, it's messy and stinky. It involves constantly cleaning the garbage can which is a gruesome job. It's horribly inconvenient. Unfortunately, I like the convenience of a large plastic bag for garbage so I buy the kind that compost. I've thought about buying a metal garbage can, but they are so inconveniently noisy! The whole neighborhood would hear me dragging a metal can out to the street in the early morning hours. I hate noise. (Poor me! What an inconvenience!)

I have yet to give up all those recycled yogurt containers I used for freezer storage. Glass has been known to break in a freezer and that sounds inconvenient to say the least. I used to use them for paint because the necks are so much larger than glass jars which makes dipping a brush easier, but I've replaced all the paint storage yogurt containers with glass jars.

Hardly even used...

My dish soap and shampoo bottles are plastic. So is my brush, comb and toothbrush. My new thyroid medication is in a plastic bottle and the tacks on my bulletin board are plastic. My clothing hangers are plastic. Every CD case I own is plastic. My wheel barrel is plastic. There is no getting around plastic encased computer equipment. Even my new heaters, although they are metal on the outside, the insides are all plastic. (I watched their installation. Who would have known?) Trying to rid oneself of plastic in a plastic world is a huge challenge! Coupled with living in an area that rains nine months out of the year, waterproof plastic is a huge convenience. Yep, I said convenience again. I guess prioritizing convenience over health makes me the quintessential modern woman. Damn.

Well, this is an eye opening experience. I don't plan to throw away my computer or my car just because it has plastic components. In a perfect world....

One step at a time.

My current focus is the plastic water bottles I use for water. I use the one gallon jugs with the #2 recycling number. These are supposed to be safe. Or safer. Hmmm...I don't know. I hate the idea of water sitting in the plastics too long and the filtered water machine I use deposits very warm water into the plastic containers and that can't be good.

It's been a challenge finding some kind of replacement especially since I must transport water from an hour and a half away which means hauling three to five gallons of water every week in and out of my house, but after reading an article on how these plastics might directly affect thyroid function I thought I'd make more of an effort especially with food/water storage.


Online I found one gallon water jugs for sale. The price per jug was only $4.00, but they are in a case of four so a mandatory $16. Unfortunately due to the weight of glass, the shipping fees cost more than the jugs!!  I wasn't sure I'd need four. My co-op sells water jugs for $10 each and I thought maybe I could get away with buying only two as a test. Putting a gallon of water into a one gallon glass jug makes it REALLY heavy and lugging them to and from my vehicle is more difficult. With plastic I could carry two in one hand. Not so with glass. I also have to be very careful HOW I carry the jugs whether they are filled or empty as there is always a risk of breakage and condensation or water drips on the outside make them slippery. Drop a plastic water bottle and it bounces. Not so with glass! Even driving with glass jars too close together and they clank dangerously against one another. Damn. Plastic is just so convenient!

Two jugs weren't enough as I was running out of water too quickly. My co-op ran out of stock so I went to another co-op and asked if they sold one gallon glass jugs. (I should have just bought the case of four! Not thinking....) The woman looked at my jug and said, "We don't sell them, but on occasion we have empty vinegar jars in the back that look just like that one. You just have to wash them." Did she say FREE!? I had to replace the lid as it had a plastic lining that no matter what I used couldn't be washed enough to rid it of smell, but the glass is wonderful!



What is the difference between these two jugs?
The one on the left cost $10. The one on the right was FREE!

It's definitely an adjustment to learn how to carry, transport and store glass containers, but I think it's healthier. If we all stop using so much plastic, perhaps the powers that be will stop making it?

Becoming plastic-free is challenging, but I'll get there! Eventually.

Water

Water has to be the most taken for granted commodity we have and the number one most wasted resource.  We wash our cars, clean our houses, water our plants, drown our lawns, bath our bodies with it, and, of course, drink it. Have you ever imagined what it would be like not to have access to water? This is a reality for millions in underdeveloped countries.

The myth is each person needs to drink eight glasses of water per day. I can't count how many times I've tried this and it never works. I end up peeing every ten minutes. Still, every so often over the years I'd read about the latest health tip or diet and attempt another self-drowning. Drink four gallons of water a day and you are guaranteed to lose weight! All this does is force me to stay within ten feet of a toilet all day.

The daily water requirement depends on many factors. A couch potato doesn't need as much water as a marathon athlete. People living in Washington State during the rainy season don't need as much as people living in Arizona during the summer. A frutarian doesn't need as much as a potato chip junkie. I venture to think anyone with a healthy diet doesn't need as much water as someone eating chemicals, salt, saturated fats and junk food.

Hydration is a requirement for life. Humans can survive up to six weeks without food, but only two days without water.

Those of us lucky enough to have easy access to water can get it straight from the tap in our homes or we can install water dispensary machines and have water delivered regularly. Stores carry numerous brands of bottled waters and some even offer bulk water from water filtration machines.

Water contamination is a constant threat. Industrial waste, human sewage, animal sewage, garbage, and bacterial pathogens are just a handful of pollutants that may render our water sources unusable. Without chemical treatments we are subjected to any number of deadly, water-borne pathogens; and with chemical treatments we are poisoned. Chlorine is the most widely used water treatment to reduce disease-causing bacteria. Fluoride is commonly added to the city water supply as a free cavity prevention practice. Our only choice is to move to property with a private well, but even then state regulations will be monitoring what you do or don't do to your own water supply.

Bottled water uses plastic materials for containers that leach PBCs, BPAs, HDPEs, PPs, PVCs, and PETs into the water and it is said most bottled water is just tap water bottled so add in the chlorine and fluoride and you are drinking one toxic cocktail! Truth be told, it's probably safer to drink tap water than some of these bottled waters!



Jason Mraz water bottle

Consumers can now buy glass or stainless steel water bottles and refill them with their own filtered tap water or buy filtered water at the store. Many restaurants offer free filtered water through their soda fountain machine.

Musician Jason Mraz is a self-made spokesperson for water quality and conservation and promotes a variety of these types of re-fillable bottles. He has also teamed up with Brita and their FilterForGood Music Project  during his "Tour is a Four Letter Word" tour promoting safe, re-usable containers and reducing plastic water bottle waste. At his concerts the Brita tents offer free filtered water and prizes. He also wears suits made from recycled plastic water bottles to music awards. I love Jason Mraz.


Suit made from water bottles!

 

For those of us who are chemically sensitive, tap water can be intolerable. Bathing in chlorine is enough to asphyxiate a MCSer and drinking fluoride can make us very sick. What about all the unknown chemicals haphazardly added to our water without our knowledge?

The first winter I first moved into my house, I started getting sick. At first I thought it was some kind of virus even though I knew that was improbable with my superhero immune system. Was it food poisoning? Mold? Cat urine bacteria from the old rugs I removed?  With every bout of illness I made an excuse before I realized I was getting sick on the same days every month like clockwork. I started logging illness episodes on a calendar. The afternoon of the 21st the nausea would build. My fast remedy for any illness was a nice, hot bath.




After the bath I'd get sicker and head to bed with cold sweats, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea and migraines. My head would spin and at times my sight would blackout. The 22nd I'd be miserable in bed all day and the 23rd it would all be almost gone by the evening. The 24th I was fine, if not a little exhausted. I was sure this was what it was like to be poisoned. Off-hand I mentioned it to a friend and she had read an article that stated if it's like clockwork it's either industry or water, something on a schedule.

Hmmm...water. But I used a Brita Water Filter. The water looked fine, unlike my last home where the water came out blackish-brown at times. Or the previous home where the water smelled like something died in the pipes (this is normal in Phoenix, Arizona!).  I did remember someone telling me when I first came to this town never to drink the water as it was toxic. I laughed and told him it couldn't possibly be worse than the water supply I left. Maybe I was wrong? I didn't really start taking it seriously until one night in the middle of a poisoning I decided I needed to drink some water in hopes of flushing whatever it was out. I passed out on my kitchen floor. Time to get serious.

The next month I planned and prepared for my experiment by buying ten gallons of filtered water from a machine in a store in another city. Between the 18th and the 25th I was allowed no tap water from my town's water source. No bathing, no hair washing, no dishwashing, no hand washing, no clothes washing, no tooth brushing, and when I flushed the toilet I timed it so the lid was down, the window opened and I ran out of the bathroom and closed the door. No touching water or even breathing water vapors.

And no illness! The first time in two winter seasons. Ah ha! It IS the water. On the 25th I was dying to take a bath and do the dishes. I became slightly nauseated and with that grabbed a gallon of filtered water and rinsed all that tap water off. The nausea slowly subsided.

A friend of mine who used to treat his division's well water told me to find out when they treat the water. He explained all the tricks water departments use to make sure they pass inspection, none of them are proper or legal.

First, I called the town's water department. I explained my water-associated health problem and that I was in the market for a whole-house water filter. I wanted to find out what chemicals are used in water treatment so I would be able to select a filter that would work on those particular chemicals. I didn't want to sound threatening or accusatory as I didn't want to put him in a defensive mode. I wanted his help. Telling the guy the water was making me violently ill and passing out DID get his attention. He apologized profusely and agreed to send me water treatment results.

As I waited for those documents, I called the state water department. The first woman was defensive, rude and unhelpful, but she passed me onto another employee who while on the phone went through some of my town's documented water issues. She sent me this documentation.

I continued to wait for the water treatment results and opted to see the local doctor. I had hoped another one of his patients might be having the same issues. I did NOT tell him I was chemically sensitive. Within five minutes his medical assistant told me it was all in my head! The doctor on the other hand, nodded condescendingly as I explained, studied my list of symptoms and prescribed headache medicine! SO. INCREDIBLY. USELESS.

The water treatment results arrived with a note stating he could only find two documents from two different months, both from last year. I found it really strange and suspicious records of the test results aren't kept on file? According to the official notes they tested the water on the 22nd in both instances. Which means they are treating the water on the 21st to comply with the testing on the 22nd. Later someone in town who knows someone who knows someone who knows the person who does the water treatments (it's a small town) heard they don't measure the chemicals. They just guess how much and dump them in. Great.

So...I called the water guy back and innocently told him I thought it was interesting the testing is done the day after I'm sick (hint, hint!). I also asked why I'm only sick in the winter and if there is a particular chemical used only in the winter. He told me they have a special chemical they add to the water only in the winter to break up the mud washes from the winter rain storms. Unbelievable. There must be a chemical for everything!

At this point I wasn't sure what to do. I doubted a water filter was going to eliminate an anti-mud chemical as most of them are designed to filtrate only chlorine and fluoride. Most water filters, even industrial strength types, can't even filter out all the medications from human sewage that goes through waste water treatments! Eewwww...Yep, we are all on birth control pills. No wonder so many have fertility issues!

 

As it turned out, I never got sick again. I think I scared the beejeebies out of the water departments and they made some changes to their lackadaisical treatment protocols.

Currently I still do bath, brush my teeth, wash my hair, water my plants, wash my dishes and flush my toilet with city water. I drink and cook with filtered water I buy from out of town.

It takes a whole lot of effort on a daily basis not to get poisoned in our society.