Important Health Concerns With Microwaves

[anonymo]

My aunt who is a health care professional in the great state of Michigan just forwarded this to me

 

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its Newsletters. This information is

being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

 

1. No plastic containers in microwave.

 

2. No water bottles in freezer.

 

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

 

4. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.

 

5. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your

plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

 

6. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital,

was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and

how bad they are for us.

 

7. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic

containers. This applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of

fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the

cells of the body.

 

8. Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware or ceramic containers for

heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as

TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container

and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the

paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.

 

9. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away

from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

 

10. Also, he pointed out that Saran wrap is just as dangerous when placed over

foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes

poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food.

 

11. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

 

12. I believe you should forward to your family and friends--anyone who is

important in your life!

[stutters]

hey 'mo, can i borrow some of your tin foil? i want a neat hat like yours.

[MrDuke]

Yup. I've researched it (because ofDanielle's condition) and it's legit; dioxins leech into your food from the plastic. We only use glass (no plastic wrap) in the microwave.

 

Also, we removed all Teflon pans from our kitchen. They appear to be OK as long as they aren't scratched. If you scratch them and ingest the flakes, that's bad. However, this is unconfirmed. Dupont won't acknowledge that it's products have carcinogenic attributes (cute, eh?).

 

So it's glass, metal, scratch pads and some elbow grease just like in the 70s and 80s.

[discom]

All my dishes are plastic or metal

[w8t4time]

this is very misleading and no you cannot get problems from microwaving plastic wrap

 

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

 

there are more dioxins in bleached toilet paper/coffee filters fyi!

 

dioxins are everywhere! they naturally occur in the enviroment!<---edit I might be wrong about this statement? are they man made?

http://www.dioxin-laboratory.com/index2.htm

 

when I tested for them a 4 hour test on a smokestack we couldn't even use teflon wrap for a sealent it had dioxin in it anything white that has been through a bleaching process--outside air prevented from leakng in. everything was leak tested with tin foil! tin foil and glass impingers with chemials to trap dioxins .0000000001 <----in those concentrations one of the most deadly substances for a human to be exposed to...

 

wow i actually found a picture of what I am talking about (you all probably wish I could do that more often because I talk gibberish mostly )

 

the whole method that the epa makes you use here is the picture of what is used to test for dioxins/furans (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans)

 

http://www.activeset.org/methods/23.htm

http://www.activeset.org/methods/new/method23/mid23.htm

 

here is the method 23 pdf file fun reading?

http://www.epa.gov/ttnemc01/promgate/m-23.pdf

Edited August 15, 2006 by w8t4time

[w8t4time]

while were at it don't eat hot dogs though and this is real maybe

 

 

Hot Dogs May Cause Genetic Mutations

By Charles Q. Choi

 

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060814_hot_dogs.html

[MrDuke]

I would truly LOVE to have this debunked as I can't stand scrubbing dishes.

However, I have a team of oncologists saying the theory has merit so I have to listen.

 

Relapses numbers that are in plastic related enviroments are higher than relapses numbers in non-plastic related enviroments.

 

Gimme something to throw back at them w8t!!

[w8t4time]

i will do some research and get back to you I haven't read about your daughter so let me read about all that and see what I find

 

my family has been in the plastic industry since its inception everytime you go to the store I am connected to that plastic bag you carry out your food in..... my findings may be industry slanted (not sure)???but I will get back to you on this give me time....

[wayfarer]

Unfortunately the entire food industry is filled with chemicals. Not

just the containers we use to cook/eat with. Ever look at the lables?

If your eating TV dinners, you might as well leave it in the container

it came in. Your not doing yourself any favours to begin with.

[Guest ash-]

Interesting. I always thought that plastic and styrofoam were bad things to put in the microwave because I've seen them melt before. While it is obvious that they can melt into the food causing you to eat it, the thought never really crossed my mind until now.

[MrDuke]

i will do some research and get back to you I haven't read about your daughter so let me read about all that and see what I find

 

my family has been in the plastic industry since its inception everytime you go to the store I am connected to that plastic bag you carry out your food in..... my findings may be industry slanted (not sure)???but I will get back to you on this give me time....

 

Sweet! I don't care which way it goes, I just want accurate information. For the time being, I must take the more cautious approach.

[pavid]

Sorry this is lengthy. The e-mail that Mo's aunt got bothered me, because the language used is not what one would expect for an e-mail originating from John Hopkins. Accordingly, I went to Snopes.com since they do a very good job in debunking (or supporting) urban myths. Here's what they had to say:

 

 

Claim: Research shows that microwaving foods in plastic containers releases cancer-causing agents into the foods.

 

Status: False.

 

Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2002]

 

Info for the Health Conscious

 

Dioxin Carcinogens causes cancer. Especially breast cancer. Don't freeze your plastic water bottles with water as this also releases dioxin in the Plastic.

 

On Channel 2 this morning. They had a Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle Hospital on the program. He is the manager of the Wellness Program at the hospital. He was talking about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxins into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Dioxins are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells of our bodies. Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results without the dioxins. So such things as TV dinners, instant saimin and soups, etc. should be removed from the container and heated in something else.

 

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. Just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He said we might remember when some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

 

Pass this on to your family and friends.

 

Variations:

In early 2004 the following paragraph was added to the beginning of the message quoted above:

Johns Hopkins Newsletter

 

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in their newsletters. This information is being circulated At Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Dioxin Carcinogens cause cancer. Especially breast cancer. Don't freeze plastic water bottles with water in them as this also releases dioxin from the plastic. Dr. Edward from Castle hospital was on a TV program explaining this health hazard. He is the manager....

In November 2004, this message was combined with another piece about the purported dangers of lead-containing lipstick.

Origins: This "health alert" began appearing in people's inboxes in February 2002; the "Channel 2" reference indicates it was someone's summarization of a short morning news health segment aired on KHON-TV in Hawaii on 23 January 2002, which was then forwarded all over the Internet as "important health information." One- or two-minute health spots on local news programs are not ideal sources of medical information, however. While important basic information can be imparted in such a format, trying to explicate complex medical topics in a minute or two can easily mislead or confuse viewers, many of whom come away believing absolutely whatever they've heard (or think they've heard) because "a doctor on TV said it was true"  in this case an unshakeable belief that using plastic containers in microwave ovens causes

cancer.

 

That a doctor (or, more accurately, someone bearing the title "Dr.") appears on TV does not mean he's a leading practitioner in his field; it generally means only that he has something to say that a news director considers newsworthy, accurate or not. (We point out here that the "Dr. Edward Fujimoto" identified in this piece is not a staff physician from "Castle Hospital" or a medical doctor; he's a PhD serving as director of the Center for Health Promotion at Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii.) What TV news covers is dictated by ratings, not importance, and sensational claims get better ratings than straightforward, mundane information, even if the latter is more valuable to the viewing audience. It's a pretty good assumption that if using plastic containers in microwaves  as millions of people have been doing for decades  posed a significant risk of cancer, you'd be hearing about it somewhere other than an e-mail forward of an anonymous summary of a morning news spot on a Hawaiian television station.

 

Is there really something to the central claim of this e-mail, that heating plastic in microwaves releases a cancer-causing agent into the food? It's within the realm of possibility, but it must be stressed the FDA does impose stringent regulations on plastics meant for microwaving. Also, if there are dioxins lurking in the plastic containers we heat food in and the process of warming those receptacles looses those nasties into our ingestibles, we've yet to locate the studies that prove this. However, because most dioxins are dangerous compounds we want to have as little to do with as possible, many people are cautious about using anything associated with them. So, if you're one of the concerned, be sure that when you cover a dish you intend to microwave with ordinary plastic wrap you do not let the covering touch the food, because some of the plasticizer in the wrap  which may contain toxic chemicals, as opposed to does contain toxic chemicals  could migrate to what you're cooking, especially foods high in fat. Alternatively, use waxed paper for this purpose. Those who are very, very cautious about the potential for dioxin contamination might choose to adopt the central point of the e-mail's advice, which is to decant all items into glass or ceramic containers before microwaving.

 

But how real is this concern? According to Dr. George Pauli, a leading Food and Drug Administration scientist, not very. He acknowledged that some plasticizers do migrate into foods, particularly those containing a lot of fat, oil, or sugars. But research has found no ill effects from consumption of plasticizers in FDA-approved plastic wraps or from freezing or re-using plastic water bottles. Even so, others remain unconvinced, and those on both sides of the issue recommend not letting plastic wrap touch food during microwaving.

 

Several months after this piece began to circulate, it was merged with a similar item describing a seventh-grade student's science project:

As a seventh grade student, Claire Nelson learned that di-ethyl-hexyl-adepate (DEHA), considered a carcinogen, is found in plastic wrap. She also learned that the FDA had never studied the effect of microwave cooking on plastic-wrapped food. Claire began to wonder: "Can cancer-causing particles seep into food covered with household plastic wrap while it is being microwaved?"

 

Three years later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher, Claire set out to test what the FDA had not. Although she had an idea for studying the effect of microwave radiation on plastic-wrapped food, she did not have the equipment. Eventually, Jon Wilkes at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas, agreed to help her. The research center, which is affiliated with the FDA, let her use its facilities to perform her experiments, which involved microwaving plastic wrap in virgin olive oil. Claire tested four different plastic wraps and "found not just the carcinogens but also xenoestrogen was migrating [into the oil]...." Xenoestrogens are linked to low sperm counts in men and to breast cancer in women.

 

Throughout her junior and senior years, Claire made a couple of trips each week to the research center, which was 25 miles from her home, to work on her experiment.

 

An article in Options reported that "her analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million. The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion." Her summarized results have been published in science journals. Claire Nelson received the American Chemical Society's top science prize for students during her junior year and fourth place at the International Science and Engineering Fair (Fort Worth, Texas) as a senior. "Carcinogens-At 10,000,000 Times FDA Limits" Options May 2000. Published by People Against Cancer, 515-972-4444.

 

To add to this: Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with the high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food. Use a paper towel instead.

This gist of this latter addition is true in that a student named Claire Nelson did perform the experiment described for a school science fair project back in 1997 (she came up with the idea for the project while she was in seventh grade, but as noted, she didn't actually conduct the experiment until three years later) by working with an FDA-affiliated laboratory. Like the Fujimoto piece, however, the claims made in this version tend towards the alarmist: the results of the experiment described tended to indicate that diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA) and xenoestrogens could migrate from plastic wraps into microwaved food (specifically olive oil, the "food" used in the experiment), but only with some brands of plastic wrap (primarily ones not sold as "microwave-safe") and only when the plastic wrap was in direct contact with the food being heated; moreover, no research has yet demonstrated that DEHA poses a significant cancer risk to humans at the levels noted here (even though they exceed FDA standards) or that xenoestrogens are a direct cause of breast cancer in women or reduced sperm counts in men.

 

Additional information:

Cooking Safely in the Microwave Oven

(USDA)

Cooking with Plastics

(Johns Hopkins University)

Last updated: 31 December 2005

 

Here's the link for the above article.

Edited August 15, 2006 by pavid

[MrDuke]

An article in Options reported that "her analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million. The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion."

 

Using the 'combination lock' model, each person is a given distance from unlocking the cancer cascade. Some have 3 turns left, 2 turns right and 1 turn left before cancer is unleashed. Others are on the last turn, just 1 number away.

 

I'm curious as to how the FDA validated their #? How many 'parts' moves the combination lock dial?

 

If a cancer causing agent (however minute) migrates into the food then that is an avoidable risk. You point out good tips to reduce the risk and we utilize all of them.

 

To those with 6 turns left, maybe it's not such a big deal. To those with fewer turns available to them, it is.

 

Fascinating stuff! Keep it coming!!

[mookie]

If you have trouble scrubbing dishes just get a dog.

 

Oh and what about covering food with wax paper? I never put saran wrap in the microwave anyway.

[Mr.Cool]

oh man, it took me a while to read through some of that stuff...especially the stuff from pavid's post.

 

well, when i microwave stuff, i usually cover the stuff with a plastic cover...like the cover doesnt touch the food because its a circle with its center about 2 inches higher than the sides. i wonder if this is okay.

 

but other than that, that Claire is pretty smart.

[w8t4time]

here is some more info best I could find the first link had many links at the bottom to do more searching but very informative information <---ha is that a double negative?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

http://www.plasticsmythbuster.org/dioxins.asp

 

What You Should Know

The claim that plastic food wraps and containers can release dioxins in the microwave oven is misleading. First, the vast majority of plastics used in food wraps and packaging containers do not contain the chemical constituents that can form dioxins. Second, dioxins are a family of compounds that are produced by combustion at high temperatures. They can only be formed during combustion at temperatures typically above 700 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, even if all of the constituents were present, you also would need to have a very hot fire in your microwave oven, in which case you probably wouldn’t eat the food anyway.

 

According to http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2002/602_plastic.html, “With regard to dioxins, we have seen no evidence that plastic containers or films contain dioxins and know of no reason why they would.�

 

When should you use a plastic product in the microwave?

A variety of today’s plastic wraps, packages and containers are specially designed to withstand microwave temperatures. To make sure yours is one of them, check the item or its packaging label. Only use a product in the microwave if the manufacturer indicates that it is okay to do so and be sure to follow any specific instructions provided. If neither the item nor the package is marked, use a different container

 

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/dioxins.html

http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/microwave_ovens.html

http://www.americanplasticscouncil.org/s_a...DID=1244&VID=86

[w8t4time]

my advice is to eat organic go vegetarian drink lots of juices (mix your own)

one of my favorite is carrot celery beet juice

 

eat fresh food more often and cook like your great grandparents before microwaves you know the meat/protein product and potatoes/rice vegi's bread type meal

 

I met someone who would never eat anything that came in a powder form